Sobering Overview: Climate Changing Faster, Stronger Than Previously Predicted

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Climate change is happening more rapidly than was predicted
by experts just 15 months ago, according to a new World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
report.

The report, Climate
Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner
, draws from some of the most recent scientific
reports and data on global warming. The information reveals that our planet is
being degraded more rapidly than was predicted in the Nobel Prize-winning
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in 2007.

One of the most disconcerting aspects is the evidence that
some areas of the Arctic Ocean are losing sea
ice 30 years ahead of current IPCC predictions. Linked to sea ice loss, global
sea levels are now expected to rise at rates more than double the pace of most
recent projections, putting millions of people in coastal regions at risk.

“It is clear that climate change is already having a greater
impact than most scientists had anticipated, so it’s vital that international
mitigation and adaptation responses become swifter and more ambitious,” said
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele
, climatology professor and newly elected Vice
Chair of the IPCC, who endorsed the publication.

Rising temperatures have already resulted in reduced global
yields of wheat, maize and barley, according to WWF’s study.

The report’s author, geoscientist Dr. Tina Tin, describes
the new statistical compendium as a “sobering overview” and proof of the urgent
need for climate action now.

 

Published: October 28, 2008