Within many people’s lifetimes, the global temperature might have risen 4 degrees Celsius, a new study prepared for the British Department of Energy and Climate Changes writes. It is the Met Office which has performed the study and challenges the assumption that climate change only will be a threat for future generations. If these estimates are correct, then most young people of today will experience a time with temperatures at a catastrophic level for a huge amount of the earth’s population, according to English newspaper The Guardian.
Global emissions have risen even faster than the worst case scenarios since 2000. Therefore the future scenarios have been adjusted. However, it is not a dooms day scenario.
– We do have time to stop it from happening if we cut green house gas emissions soon. Soaring emissions must peak and start to fall sharply within the next decade to head off a 2 degrees rise, says scientist Richard Betts at the Met Office.
A four degrees temperature rise could threaten the water supply of half the world’s population, wipe out up to half of animal and plant species and swamp low coasts. From 7th – 18th of December the UN climate change conference is held in Copenhagen, where decision makers from all over the world gather to discuss global efforts to prevent climate change.
This week Russian President Dmitri Medvedev made a sharp comment on climate change, warning that the consequences could be catastrophic if no action is taken.
– If we don’t take joint action, the consequences for the planet may be very distressing to the point that the Arctic and Antarctic ice can melt and change ocean levels, Medvedev said according to Reuters.
However, Russia is still among the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, and has up to now been more or less invincible in the political discussions leading up to the Copenhagen Conference.
