Just days before the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fourth report on global warming, Will Steger testified in the Minnesota House Chambers in front of eight joint committees and over 100 Minnesota Senators and Representatives on the urgent need to take action on global warming now.
Steger emphasized the fact that Americans are demanding decisive, immediate action from their legislators on global warming. He described the effects global warming has already had on the lives of the Inuit. Travel between Inuit villages is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous because of melting ice and other changes in the landscape. Weather is becoming increasingly unpredictable as well. Inuit elders were, at one time, able to predict weather patterns; because of the effects of global warming, these predictions are becoming increasingly inaccurate. Excerpts from Steger’s talk were featured on MPR.
The United Nations subcommittee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), known as the world’s scientific authority on global warming, released a report on February 2, 2007 that reiterated with “very high confidence” that human activities are increasing the global temperature worldwide.
Important findings include :
– The warming of the climate is unequivocal
– Arctic temperatures increased two times the global average rate over the past 100 years
– The permafrost layer is decreasing in the spring of up to 15%
– Both past and future human induced carbon dioxide emissions will contribute to warming and sea level rise beyond the millenium
– The contraction of Greenland’s ice sheet is projected to contribute to a rise in sea level past the year 2100
– Mountain glaciers and snow cover have declined across the globe
– At all scales, “numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures and ice, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind pattern and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones.”
To learn about the IPCC’s findings, please visit their website.