CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE LAST DECADE

Climate Change in the Last Decade



Climate Change in the Last Decade

Introduction

Throughout recorded history, and in studies of geological and other records from much earlier periods of the Earth's history, there have been a number of abrupt climate changes. These significant and widespread shifts in climate heavily impacted many parts of the world. Current studies of these changes draw from details revealed from ice core samples, especially from Greenland and northern Canada, and also from records compiled showing signs of geological changes. More recent information has emerged from examinations of the fluctuations in the size of tree rings, and also from historical accounts.

Alley (2000) mentions the quantity of these abrupt climate changes has led some academics, often labelled climate change skeptics, to explain the current global warming in terms of these trends (Alley, 2000). They suggest or state that the current changes are, or could be, merely a part of a cycle of global warming and cooling, similar to those that have occurred over hundreds of thousands of years.

Climate Change in the Last Decade

It is true that on a list of twenty issues presented to the American people in a 2009 Pew survey, climate change came in dead last. But this is a mistake of perception and judgment. These issues really should be at the top of the list; even above the ailing economy (#1 on the list) because the economy is a subset of the environment, not the other way around.

The year 2009 was the year of the United Nations Copenhagen summit, in which the most heads of state in history convened at the same place, and the year of “climategate,” in which hundreds of emails between various climate scientists were hacked. A quick review of the alleged smoking gun emails reveals, however, nothing of the sort (Alley, 2000). Yes, the scientists were guilty, in private conversations, of seeming a bit overzealous in their desire to keep the views of climate naysayers out of the journals. But even if the worst claims about the emails were true they would do practically nothing to contradict the broad consensus regarding the human influence on past climate (what is less certain, as any good scientist will tell you, is the amount of future warming we can expect from existing and future greenhouse gas emissions) (William, 2002).

Despite the broad consensus on global warming's key points, however, most objective observers believe that the United Nations Copenhagen summit in December was an unmitigated disaster. What was expected before the negotiations was far more than what actually came out — somewhere along the way negotiations broke down (William, 2002).

What was completed, the Copenhagen Accord, is a document signed by many of the largest emitters as a voluntary statement of intent to limit global emissions to avoid any more than a 2°C increase in global temperature and to provide about $30 billion in mitigation funds by 2012. And that's pretty much it in terms of ...