Strategies for a Changing Planet: Awareness

Monday, July 9, 2012 - 09:31 in Earth & Climate

Already Happening Nick JacquesWe're on a collision course with extreme weather -- it's time to acknowledge that, and to prepare Climate change is already happening, and it's time to get ready. Here's how we could adjust our most basic needs--food, water, shelter--to survive. There is no longer any question of preventing climate change. Some 98 percent of working climate scientists agree that the atmosphere is already warming in response to human greenhouse-gas emissions, and the most recent research suggests that we are on a path toward what were once considered "worst case" scenarios. How much warmer must it get before things really go to hell? "Climate sensitivity" remains a subject of intense investigation, and what counts as hellish is a matter of judgment, but United Nations climate negotiators have settled on a goal to limit atmospheric carbon dioxide to 450 parts per million, which would cause the global mean temperature...

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