Climate Change Realities

 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) stated with 95% confidence that climate change is a result of human activities particularly our burning of fossil fuels.

The evidence of this can be seen as follows:

1. Global temperatures have risen by 0.85 degrees celcius since 1880.
2. Carbon Dioxide levels are at their highest level for at least 800,000 years.
3. Sea levels have risen by 19cm in the last century
4. Arctic ice is contracting at a rate of 1/2 a million square kilometres a decade.

According to the IPCC report the effects of climate change are likely to accelerate into the next century. These changes include:

• A two degree increase in temperature by 2100.
• Melting of the arctic and Antarctic ice sheets will continue. This will result in further sea level rise.
• Glacial and snow cover in the Northern hemisphere in such places as the Alps will continue to contract.
• Low lying countries will be at risk. Island nations such as Kiribati in the Pacific are already making plans for increases in sea levels.Kiribati is made up of a small group of islands which has purchased land from Fiji in order to relocate as the islands are being slowly drowned by sea level rise. Kiribati purchases land in Fiji - the Telegraph.
• Britain will experience more extreme weather. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture resulting in warmer wetter winters. More moisture in the atmosphere will also result in more extreme weather patterns.

Governments must act now and move away from reliance on carbon-emitting fossil fuels to stop an environmental catastrophe for our planet.