In a new scientific study by the journal Nature, researchers are predicting that current climate models fall significantly short of accurately predicting rises in global temperatures, which they estimate could increase by 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, (4 degrees Celsius) due to a decrease in cloud cover brought about by increasing temperatures.
The study determined that a heating planet impacts the rate of cloud formation, thereby decreasing the amount of sunlight which is reflected, thereby cooling temperatures.
The latest news paints an ever more dire picture of worse case scenarios which spell out a nearly unphatomable scenario for a world which warms by 4 degrees and ups the ante significantly to negotiations which aim to curtail warming by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
Identified resultant problems of food insecurity, water scarcity, climate refugees, and national and regional security issues are key issues, along with the impact of the severe melting of ice cover in both Greenland and the Antarctic.
With the publication earlier this year of its fifth assessment report, the ntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded with 95% certainty that human action was the major driver of global climate change.
"If this isn't an alarm bell, then I don't know what one is. If ever there were an issue that demanded greater cooperation, partnership, and committed diplomacy, this is it," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after the IPCC report was released.
At the current time, there are no plans for the IPCC to prepare a sixth assessment, according to a University of Coloroda, Boulder, scientist who participates in the studies.
11:00 AM PT: Hopes are that this post will generate some aggressive ideas on what we have to do in 2014 to address this individually, locally, regionally. My ideas are that we link up with Transition Towns networks in our areas AND that we work with 350 local. Also, note that Post Carbon Institute's Energy Bulletin into Resilience.www.resilience.org/. Great resources here!