"Stop making fun of the UN you scumbag liberal.

UN downgrades man's impact on the climate

Richard Gray, Science Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 1:37am GMT 11/12/2006



Mankind has had less effect on global warming than previously
supposed, a United Nations report on climate change will claim next year.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says there can be
little doubt that humans are responsible for warming the planet, but the
organisation has reduced its overall estimate of this effect by 25 per
cent.

In a final draft of its fourth assessment report, to be published in
February, the panel reports that the level of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has accelerated in the past five years. It also predicts that
temperatures will rise by up to 4.5 C during the next 100 years, bringing
more frequent heat waves and storms.



The panel, however, has lowered predictions of how much sea levels
will rise in comparison with its last report in 2001.

Climate change sceptics are expected to seize on the revised figures
as evidence that action to combat global warming is less urgent.

Scientists insist that the lower estimates for sea levels and the
human impact on global warming are simply a refinement due to better data
on how climate works rather than a reduction in the risk posed by global
warming.

One leading UK climate scientist, who asked not to be named due to
the sensitivity surrounding the report before it is published, said: "The
bottom line is that the climate is still warming while our greenhouse gas
emissions have accelerated, so we are storing up problems for ourselves in
the future."

The IPCC report, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, has been handed to the
Government for review before publication.

It warns that carbon dioxide emissions have risen during the past
five years by three per cent, well above the 0.4 per cent a year average
of the previous two decades. The authors also state that the climate is
almost certain to warm by at least 1.5 C during the next 100 years.

Such a rise would be enough to take average summer temperatures in
Britain to those seen during the 2003 heatwave, when August temperatures
reached a record-breaking 38 C. Unseasonable warmth this year has left
many Alpine resorts without snow by the time the ski season started.

Britain can expect more storms of similar ferocity to those that
wreaked havoc across the country last week, even bringing a tornado to
north-west London.

The IPCC has been forced to halve its predictions for sea-level rise
by 2100, one of the key threats from climate change. It says improved data
have reduced the upper estimate from 34 in to 17 in.

It also says that the overall human effect on global warming since
the industrial revolution is less than had been thought, due to the
unexpected levels of cooling caused by aerosol sprays, which reflect heat
from the sun.

Large amounts of heat have been absorbed by the oceans, masking the
warming effect.

Prof Rick Battarbee, the director of the Environmental Change
Research Centre at University College London, warned these masking effects
had helped to delay global warming but would lead to larger changes in the
future.

He said: "The oceans have been acting like giant storage heaters by
trapping heat and carbon dioxide. They might be bit of a time-bomb as they
have been masking the real effects of the carbon dioxide we have been
releasing into the atmosphere.

"People are very worried about what will happen in 2030 to 2050, as
we think that at that point the oceans will no longer be able to absorb
the carbon dioxide being emitted. It will be a tipping point and that is
why it is now critical to act to counter any acceleration that will occur
when this happens."

The report paints a bleak picture for future generations unless
greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. It predicts that the climate will
warm by 0.2 C a decade for the next two decades if emissions continue at
current levels.

The report states that snow cover in mountainous regions will
contract and permafrost in polar regions will decline.

However, Julian Morris, executive director of the International
Policy Network, urged governments to be cautious. "There needs to be
better data before billions of pounds are spent on policy measures that
may have little impact," he said.


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"U.N. Climate Panel Says Warming Is Man-Made..."
____________________________
Consensus again?

So, explain to us the plan about how the UN is going to shut down China
and India so they don't exhale half of the CO2?