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UN urges global response to scientific evidence that climate change is human-induced

IPCC Report Launched United Nations officials have called for a global response to combat climate change, following new findings by a scientific panel stating it is "extremely likely" that humans have been the dominant cause of unprecedented global warming since 1950. "The heat is on. Now we must act,"Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a videomessageto the launch of the report of the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC report, released on September 27, 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden, calls global warming "unequivocal," and confirms that there is a 95 per cent probability that most of the warming since 1950 has been caused by human influence. The reportstresses that evidence for this has grown "thanks to more and better observations, an improved understanding of the climate system response and improved climate models." "The IPCC report demonstrates that we must greatly reduce global emissions in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change," said the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Michel Jarraud. "It also contains important new scientific knowledge that can be used to produce actionable climate information and services for assisting society to adapt to the impacts of climate change." In itsreport, the IPCC notes that ...

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Warm ocean currents cause majority of ice loss from Antarctica

New survey reveals Reporting in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has established that warm ocean currents are the dominant cause of recent ice loss from Antarctica.New techniques have been used to differentiate, for the first time, between the two known causes of melting ice shelves - warm ocean currents attacking the underside, and warm air melting from above. This finding brings scientists a step closer to providing reliable projections of future sea-level rise.Researchers used 4.5 million measurements made by a laser instrument mounted on NASA's ICESat satellite to map the changing thickness of almost all the floating ice shelves around Antarctica, revealing the pattern of ice-shelf melt across the continent. Of the 54 ice shelves mapped, 20 are being melted by warm ocean currents, most of which are in West Antarctica.In every case, the inland glaciers that flow down to the coast and feed into these thinning ice shelves have accelerated, draining more ice into the sea and contributing to sea level rise.Lead author Dr Hamish Pritchard from British Antarctic Survey, which is part of the UK's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), said:"In most places in Antarctica, we can't explain the ...

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Kiribati Global Warming Fears

Entire Nation May Move To Fiji Fearing that climate change could wipe out their entire Pacific archipelago, the leaders of Kiribati are considering an unusual backup plan: moving the populace to Fiji.Kiribati President Anote Tong told The Associated Press on Friday that his Cabinet this week endorsed a plan to buy nearly 6,000 acres on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu. He said the fertile land, being sold by a church group for about $9.6 million, could be insurance for Kiribati's entire population of 103,000, though he hopes it will never be necessary for everyone to leave."We would hope not to put everyone on one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it," Tong said. "It wouldn't be for me, personally, but would apply more to a younger generation. For them, moving won't be a matter of choice. It's basically going to be a matter of survival."Kiribati, which straddles the equator near the international date line, has found itself at the leading edge of the debate on climate change because many of its atolls rise just a few feet above sea level.Tong said some villages have already moved and there have been increasing instances of ...

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Tropical sea temperatures influence melting in Antarctica

Higher-than-normal sea-level pressure Accelerated melting of two fast-moving outlet glaciers that drain Antarctic ice into the Amundsen Sea Embayment is likely the result, in part, of an increase in sea-surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean, according to new University of Washington research.Higher-than-normal sea-level pressure north of the Amundsen Sea sets up westerly winds that push surface water away from the glaciers and allow warmer deep water to rise to the surface under the edges of the glaciers, said Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences."This part of Antarctica is affected by what's happening on the rest of the planet, in particular the tropical Pacific," he said.The research involves the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, two of the five largest glaciers in Antarctica. Those two glaciers are important because they drain a large portion of the ice sheet.As they melt from below, they also gain speed, draining the ice sheet faster and contributing to sea level rise. Eventually that could lead to global sea level rise of as much as 6 feet, though that would take hundreds to thousands of years, Steig said.NASA scientists recently documented that a section of the ...

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Arctic settles into new phase

Warmer, greener, and less ice An international team of scientists who monitor the rapid changes in the Earth's northern polar region say that the Arctic is entering a new state - one with warmer air and water temperatures, less summer sea ice and snow cover, and a changed ocean chemistry. This shift is also causing changes in the region's life, both on land and in the sea, including less habitat for polar bears and walruses, but increased access to feeding areas for whales.Changes to the Arctic are chronicled annually in the Arctic Report Card, which has been recently released. The report is prepared by an international team of scientists from 14 different countries."This report, by a team of 121 scientists from around the globe, concludes that the Arctic region continues to warm, with less sea ice and greater green vegetation," said Monica Medina, NOAA principal deputy under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere. "With a greener and warmer Arctic, more development is likely. Reports like this one help us to prepare for increasing demands on Arctic resources so that better decisions can be made about how to manage and protect these more valuable and increasingly available resources."Among the 2011 highlights ...

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