...IPCC Status Report on Climate Change Summary Abstract The following is a summary of the IPCC Status Report on Climate Change. The following questions will be answered: is climate change occurring? About which aspects of climate change are we certain? Uncertain? What are the main factors determining climate change today? What is the likelihood that humans have caused these changes and what data supports this conclusion? And finally, what information is not yet available or are we unable to access at this time that may have bearing on the report and our understanding of climate change? The IPCC Status Report on Climate Change Summary for Policymakers is an assessment of the current scientific understanding of the impacts of climate change on natural, managed and human systems; the vulnerability of these systems and their capacity to adapt. The purpose of this report is to set out the findings of the Fourth Assessment of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change that they find to be relevant to those making decisions relating to government policy. The data used to compile the report are largely based on data sets that cover a period from 1970. According to the report, climate change is occurring. Observational evidence, including satellite imaging, from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases. Examples of natural systems affected include, but...
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...Public Disclosure Authorized 62696 Public Disclosure Authorized CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE Responding to an Urgent Agenda Daniel Hoornweg, Mila Freire, Marcus J. Lee, Perinaz Bhada-Tata, and Belinda Yuen, editors blic Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE The Urban Development Series discusses the challenge of urbanization and what it will mean for developing countries in the decades ahead. The series delves substantively into the core issues framed by the World Bank’s 2009 Urban Strategy, Systems of Cities: Harnessing Urbanization for Growth and Poverty Alleviation. Across the five domains of the Urban Strategy, the series provides a focal point for publications that seek to foster a better understanding of the core elements of the city system, pro-poor policies, city economies, urban land and housing markets, urban environments, and other issues germane to the agenda of sustainable urban development. Cities and Climate Change: Responding to an Urgent Agenda is the first title in the Urban Development Series. CITIES AND CLIMATE CHANGE Responding to an Urgent Agenda Daniel Hoornweg, Mila Freire, Marcus J. Lee, Perinaz Bhada-Tata, and Belinda Yuen, editors Washington, D.C. © 2011 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000 Internet: www.worldbank.org All rights reserved 1 2 3 4 14 13 12 11 This volume is a product...
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...We read and hear so much about protecting the environment, because many different environmental issues are beginning to make a profound impact on Earth. One of those environmental issues is Climate Change. However, one question that we constantly ask is, ‘Why is this so important?’. Climate change is already beginning to transform life on Earth. Around the globe, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing and sea levels are rising. And meanwhile, our planet must still supply us – and all living things – with air, water, food and safe places to live. If we don't act now, climate change will rapidly alter the lands and waters we all depend upon for survival, leaving our children and grandchildren with a very different world. Along with the alteration of our land and many other negative transformations, climate change comes with numerous other threatening consequences. Examples of these include endangerment of wildlife, increase of heat related diseases and illnesses, stronger storms and increased storm damage, and economic losses. Each and every one of these effects can cause numerous intense impacts to the way we live today, and as mentioned, for our descendents in the future. Gases emitted by power plants, automobiles, deforestation and other sources are warming up the planet, and contributing to rising temperatures. In fact, according to scientific records and meteorologists, the five hottest years on record have all occurred since 1997 and the 10 hottest since 1990...
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...Climate change becomes a universal issue in recent years, with the negative influence occurring in the third world. There are lots of negative effects on most urban areas city on coast and riverbanks are vulnerable to climate change effects such as a increase in sea level (Nichcolls, cited in Hunt and Watkiss 2004, p.17). Climate change refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity (Parry M.L et al. 2007, p.13). The world’s urban population will rapid increase in the next few year, so the negative effects caused by climate change in cities should be solved necessarily. This essay outlines the major negative impacts by climate change, and evaluates three possible solving measures in many developing countries. The essay argues that three effective solutions are able to solve the problems of climate change in developing countries. Climate change negatively affects the urban in developing countries. The first environmental effect of climate change is a rising sea level. Rosenzweig et al. (2010, p.910) survey that city should obviously contributed to 71% of global energy-related greenhouse-gas. Most chief cities in developing country are located in low altitudes or near the seaside, which are brought calamities by the climate change. As the world warming, the threat from the ocean level increase poses alarming for cities. A rising in sea level has the direct influences on urban areas such as beach erosion and soil...
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...change on crop and livestock production could result in a nationwide food shortage and greatly hinder the economy. Adaptation is widely recognized as a fundamental component of any policy response to climate change and variability. Studies show that without adaptation, climate change is generally harmful to the entire livelihood system, but with adaptation, vulnerability can largely be reduced (Smith, 1996). ‘The extent to which an agricultural system is affected by climate change and variability depends on its adaptive capacity, which is the ability of a system to adjust to climate change and variability to moderate potential damage, take advantage of opportunities or cope with the consequences’ (IPCC,...
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...view. It has been scientifically proven and accepted by many scientist that mini global warming and global cooling periods have been present in the earth’s history. These fascinating scientific facts of earth’s history have been totally knocked out by the massive hype that man is responsible for climate change. Overall, climate change tends to be reported as explanations about general tendencies and possible outcomes. Climate Change is a Natural Process, not Man-Made It seems like everyone in the world has an opinion about what might be causing the climate of the world to change. Recently there has been a common scientific consensus that claims to know what is causing the climate to change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is stating carbon dioxide is causing the climate to change, the oceans are warming, and the temperature is rising faster than usual. These claims being made are not only incorrect but lack the understanding of how the earth has hosted life for billions of years. There are many different claims about climate change being a man-made challenge facing the world today, but the top three are actually nothing more than a combination of natural cycles and events. When the concern about climate change developed in the...
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...Global Warming: Challenging the “Settled” Science In December of 1997, political leaders gathered in Kyoto, Japan to contemplate a world treaty restricting human production of “greenhouse gases,” in particular carbon dioxide (CO2). They worried that CO2 would result in a severe and sudden increase in earth’s temperatures, leading to environmental disasters on a global scale. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the preeminent body for the assessment of climate change, humans are responsible for the majority of global warming since 1900, including virtually 100% of the warming since 1970 (IPCC, 2007b, p. 39). In the years since Kyoto, there have been major efforts to bring about worldwide agreement to the treaty, including a recent climate summit—much publicized for its failings—held in Copenhagen. But not everyone is going along with the IPCC. Despite a continuing maelstrom of media hype and alarmist politics, the idea that the earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, due primarily to human influence, is quickly losing ground. This global warming backlash is due in large part to a growing chorus of skeptics and climate experts willing to challenge the prevailing science at the core of the movement. Over 31,000 scientists, including over 9,000 PhDs, have raised concerns over the IPCC’s findings. They have signed a petition stating that the organization’s claims are extreme, that the climate system is more complex than what is now known, and...
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...the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as NCDC's own data resources. It was prepared by David Easterling and Tom Karl, National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, N.C. 28801. One of the most vigorously debated topics on Earth is the issue of climate change, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) data centers are central to answering some of the most pressing global change questions that remain unresolved. The National Climatic Data Center contains the instrumental and paleoclimatic records that can precisely define the nature of climatic fluctuations at time scales of a century and longer. Among the diverse kinds of data platforms whose data contribute to NCDC's resources are: Ships, buoys, weather stations, weather balloons, satellites, radar and many climate proxy records such as tree rings and ice cores. The National Oceanographic Data Center contains the subsurface ocean data which reveal the ways that heat is distributed and redistributed over the planet. Knowing how these systems are changing and how they have changed in the past is crucial to understanding how they will change in the future. And, for climate information that extends from hundreds to thousands of years, paleoclimatology data, also available from the National Climatic Data Center, helps to provide longer term perspectives. Internationally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), under the auspices of the United Nations (UN)...
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...Brief Overview of Reports of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Since 1990 and Reactions • In its first 1990 REPORT, the IPCC refrained from suggesting that the 0.5 degrees Celsius rise in the average global earth temperature since the start of the 20th century was due to humans or from natural variability. • In its second 1995 REPORT, the IPCC did not move much from its earlier position of the origin of higher global temperatures. However, it did say that subsequent research since the last report gave a strong indication that, “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on the global climate.” • In its third 2001 REPORT, the IPCC went a step further when saying the continuing trends in climate warming were “likely” – meaning more than a 66% chance of being due to humans. • In its fourth 2007 REPORT, the “likely” scientific viewpoint got much stronger with the term “very likely” – meaning more than a 90% chance of being due to humans. Conclusions were more definitive that the warming up was unmistakable from measurements of atmosphere and ocean temperatures, from worldwide rapid melting of glaciers and pole ice and from the rise in sea level. globalwarming5The provocative statement was also made that, even if the greenhouse gas effect stabilized, the warming up of the earth and the rising sea levels could continue for a 100 years with irreversible effects on nature and humans. As noted, not surprisingly, the neo-conservative Tea...
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...Humans have known about global warming for many years. MANY people think that our concern about carbon dioxide and global warming is a modern preoccupation driven by the attention of high-profile personalities, politicians and green activists. But Al Gore did not discover global warming. Nor did Tim Flannery, Peter Garrett, Greenpeace or Malcolm Turnbull. Scientific concern about global warming is not new. A single scientific paper, published more than three decades ago, can place the discussions about climate change into historical perspective. Tomorrow it will be 35 years since the leading science journal Nature published a review paper entitled "Man-made carbon dioxide and the 'greenhouse' effect", by the eminent atmospheric scientist J. S. Sawyer, director of research at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. In four pages, Sawyer summarised what was known about the role of carbon dioxide in enhancing the natural greenhouse effect leading to warming at the earth's surface, and made a remarkable 28-year prediction of the warming expected to the end of the 20th century. His prediction can now be compared with what has been observed. We can also compare his review of the science in the early 1970s with that in the latest (2007) assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After summarising recent calculations of the likely impact of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations on global surface temperature, Sawyer concluded that the "increase of 25...
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...Chapter 8 Quality Assurance and Quality Control 8 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL IPCC Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories 8.1 Quality Assurance and Quality Control Chapter 8 CO-CHAIRS, EDITORS AND EXPERTS Co-Chairs of the Expert Meeting on Cross-sectoral Methodologies f or Uncertainty Estimation and Inventory Quality Taka Hiraishi (Japan) and Buruhani Nyenzi (Tanzania) REVIEW EDITORS Carlos M Lòpez Cabrera (Cuba) and Leo A Meyer (Netherlands) Expert Group: Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) CO-CHAIRS Kay Abel (Australia) and Michael Gillenwater (USA) AUTHOR OF BACKGROUND PAPER Joe Mangino (USA) CONTRIBUTORS Sal Emmanuel (IPCC-NGGIP/TSU), Jean-Pierre Fontelle (France), Michael Gytarsky (Russia), Art Jaques (Canada), Magezi-Akiiki (Uganda), and Joe Mangino (USA) 8.2 IPCC Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Chapter 8 Quality Assurance and Quality Control Contents 8 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL 8.1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................8.4 8.2 PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN DEVELOPING QA/QC SYSTEMS ......................................8.5 8.3 ELEMENTS OF A QA/QC SYSTEM .................................................................................................. 8.6 8.4 INVENTORY AGENCY...
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...The greenhouse effect plays an essential role in preventing the planet from entering a perpetual ice age: Remove the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and the earth’s temperature would plummet by around 60 degrees Fahrenheit (F). However, scientists who have elaborated on Arrhenius’s theory of global warming are concernced that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are causing an unprecedented rise in global temperatures, with potentially harmful consequences for the environment and human health. In 1988, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprising more than two thousand scientists responsible for studying global warming’s potential impact on climate. According to the IPCC, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent, methane...
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...Climate change as defined by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) refers to “change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer” (IPCC 2013). The IPCC refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity and further notes three independent/interlinked causes of climate change: a) natural internal processes, b) external forces and/or c) continuous anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use. According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) estimates the five year period,...
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... The greenhouse effect plays an essential role in preventing the planet from entering a perpetual ice age: Remove the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and the earth’s temperature would plummet by around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. However, scientists who have elaborated on Arrhenius’s theory of global warming are concerned that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are causing an unprecedented rise in global temperatures, with potentially harmful consequences for the environment and human health. In 1988, the United Nations Environment Program and the World Meteorological Organization established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), comprising more than two thousand scientists responsible for studying global warming’s potential impact on climate. According to the IPCC, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has increased by 31 percent, methane by...
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...Global Warming Debate Humans have known about global warming for many years. MANY people think that our concern about carbon dioxide and global warming is a modern preoccupation driven by the attention of high-profile personalities, politicians and green activists. But Al Gore did not discover global warming. Nor did Tim Flannery, Peter Garrett, Greenpeace or Malcolm Turnbull. Scientific concern about global warming is not new. A single scientific paper, published more than three decades ago, can place the discussions about climate change into historical perspective. Tomorrow it will be 35 years since the leading science journal Nature published a review paper entitled "Man-made carbon dioxide and the 'greenhouse' effect", by the eminent atmospheric scientist J. S. Sawyer, director of research at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. In four pages, Sawyer summarized what was known about the role of carbon dioxide in enhancing the natural greenhouse effect leading to warming at the earth's surface, and made a remarkable 28-year prediction of the warming expected to the end of the 20th century. His prediction can now be compared with what has been observed. We can also compare his review of the science in the early 1970s with that in the latest (2007) assessment from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. After summarizing recent calculations of the likely impact of increasing carbon dioxide concentrations on global surface temperature, Sawyer concluded that...
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