The atmosphere is becoming more humid in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change, researchers have found. Read the article
here. Al Gore's film has been criticised as well as praised but there are clearly a few errors which should be highlighted.
Error one
Al Gore: A sea-level rise of up to 20 feet would be caused by melting of either West Antarctica or Greenland “in the near future”.
The judge’s finding: “This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ”wake-up call“. It was common ground that if Greenland melted it would release this amount of water - “but only after, and over, millennia.”
Error two
Gore: Low-lying inhabited Pacific atolls are already “being inundated because of anthropogenic global warming.”
Judge: There was no evidence of any evacuation having yet happened.
Error three
Gore: The documentary described global warming potentially “shutting down the Ocean Conveyor” - the process by which the Gulf Stream is carried over the North Atlantic to western Europe.
Judge: According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it was “very unlikely” it would be shut down, though it might slow down.
Error four
Gore: He asserted - by ridiculing the opposite view - that two graphs, one plotting a rise in C02 and the other the rise in temperature over a period of 650,000 years, showed “an exact fit”.
Judge: Although there was general scientific agreement that there was a connection, “the two graphs do not establish what Mr Gore asserts”.
Error five
Gore: The disappearance of snow on Mt Kilimanjaro was expressly attributable to global warming.
Judge: This “specifically impressed” David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, but the scientific consensus was that it cannot be established that the recession of snows on Mt Kilimanjaro is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
Error six
Gore: The drying up of Lake Chad was used in the film as a prime example of a catastrophic result of global warming, said the judge.
Judge: “It is generally accepted that the evidence remains insufficient to establish such an attribution. It is apparently considered to be far more likely to result from other factors, such as population increase and over-grazing, and regional climate variability.”
Error seven
Gore: Hurricane Katrina and the consequent devastation in New Orleans to global warming.
Judge: There is “insufficient evidence to show that”.
Error eight
Gore: Referred to a new scientific study showing that, for the first time, polar bears were being found that had actually drowned “swimming long distances - up to 60 miles - to find the ice”.
Judge: “The only scientific study that either side before me can find is one which indicates that four polar bears have recently been found drowned because of a storm." That was not to say there might not in future be drowning-related deaths of bears if the trend of regression of pack ice continued - “but it plainly does not support Mr Gore’s description”.
Error nine
Gore: Coral reefs all over the world were bleaching because of global warming and other factors.
Judge: The IPCC had reported that, if temperatures were to rise by 1-3 degrees centigrade, there would be increased coral bleaching and mortality, unless the coral could adapt. But separating the impacts of stresses due to climate change from other stresses, such as over-fishing, and pollution was difficult. Read these other articles
here and
here as well for more info. Maybe it would be a good idea to ask you about this after you have seen it. We haven't been issued with a copy yet into the school but I gather it is supposed to be coming soon. Watch this space!
The snow that fell on Beijing last week was the heaviest for many years. It was also, China claims, man-made. Some areas of farmland in the north of China were suffering because of drought. So on Saturday night China's meteorologists (weather experts) fired 186 explosive rockets with chemicals to "seed" clouds and encourage snow to fall. The US has tried this in California. The chemicals fired into the sky, usually dry ice or silver iodide, are supposed to provide a surface for water vapour to form rain. But there is little evidence that it works – after all, how do we know it would not have rained anyway? Such doubts have not stopped China claiming tha they did control the weather. Officials said the blue skies that were over Beijing's parade to celebrate 60 years of communism were a result of cloud-seeding. In 2008, more than 1,000 rockets were fired to ensure a dry night for last year's Olympic opening ceremony. As interest grows, so does concern about whether such techniques, known as geoengineering, are good for the planet and humans. "If climate change turns ugly, then many countries will start looking at desperate measures," says an energy expert ." Geoengineering worries experts for two reasons. First, the massive side effects; what it could do to the world's rainfall, for example. Second, once started, geoengineering would probably have to be continued, as stopping could bring lots of changes in climate.
