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Joined: 14 Feb 2005
Posts: 5922
Location: Cayman Islands
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 Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:17 pm Post subject: News Headline | Climate change - everyone's problem |
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From Cayman Net News:
Climate change - everyone's problem
Although the concept of climate change was nothing more than conjecture a decade ago, today more and more scientists are confirming their certainty that climate change is real and is a direct result of man's increasing use of fossil fuels.
Climatologists reporting for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say we are seeing global warming caused by human activities and there are growing fears of feedbacks that will accelerate this warming.
It has been confirmed that 2005 was the warmest year ever recorded, beating the previous record high set in 1998 and continuing a general trend of rising temperatures dating back to 1980.
According to the earth institute in May 2005, scientists concluded the Earth is absorbing more of the sun's energy than is being emitted back into space, disrupting the planet's energy balance and resulting in global warming.
Scientists agree the Earth's climate is being directly affected by human activity, and for many people around the world, these changes are having negative effects. Carbon dioxide levels today are nearly 30 percent higher than they were prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution, based on records extending back 650,000 years.
According to NASA, the polar ice cap is now melting at the rate of 9 percent per decade. Arctic ice thickness has decreased 40 percent since the 1960s. The current pace of sea-level rise is three times the historical rate and appears to be accelerating.
Droughts in the Sahel during the 1970s and 1980s were found to be caused by warmer sea surface temperatures, and the current drought in the Amazon is also suspected to be a result of rising ocean temperatures.
The cause of intensifying tropical storms in our region is currently under study, and some scientists believe rising sea surface temperatures to be the cause.
We here in the Cayman Islands have every reason to be concerned about climate change. Rising sea levels is bad news for all people living on islands.
One Hurricane Ivan was more than enough for everyone here but the prospect of regular hurricanes of such intensity is now a reality that we must all prepare for.
As a result Cayman Net News is introducing a new weekly feature to take a closer look at the reports that come out of the world of science that tell us what's happening with climate change on our planet earth. |
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