Seven Indicators are Rising• Air temperature over land•Sea-surface temperature•Air temperature over oceans•Sea level•Ocean heat•Humidity•Tropospheric temperature

Three Indicators are Declining•Arctic sea ice•Glaciers•Spring snow cover in Northern Hemisphere

NASA

IPCC 2007

Natural Moderating of the Earth’s Atmosphere

The Human Factor

http://www.nps.gov/goga/naturescience/climate-change-causes.htm

Humans are responsiblefor recent warming

Natural variation cannot account for recent warming

International Energy Agency“The message from our latest World Energy Outlook, released in November [2011], is clear – unless we change course immediately, then by 2017 we will have “locked-in” the carbon allowance of the energy sector to 2035, if we are to limit global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius. In other words, on our current path, by 2017 we will have built long-lived CO2-emitting energy infrastructure that will require all additional energy infrastructure to be zero-carbon, or we will fall short of our goal.” (Official statement at UNFCCC COP17)

450 ppm 2 deg C limit

Global Annual Mean Surface Air Temperature Change

• base period 1951-1980• dotted black line is the annual mean• solid red line is the five-year mean• green bars show uncertainty estimates

NASA

Impacts of a Warming World

+1.5o C – Vital for low-lying island states to survive

• Arctic sea ice already disappearing

• Most of the world's corals will die

• Glaciers retreat• Climate related disease

vectors

+2o C – The maximum temperature limit the scientists warn

• Heat waves; extreme weather events

• Amazon turns into desert and grasslands

• World's oceans too acidic for remaining coral reefs and other marine life forms

• West Antarctic ice sheet collapse; Greenland ice sheet melts; Sea level rises 7 m

• A third of the world's species become extinct (habitat changes too abrupt)

Above +2 deg our children inherit a world we would not recognize

+3o C – Looking increasingly likely

• Global warming may run out of control

• Efforts to mitigate may be in vain• Much of Amazon rainforest could

burn down• Southern Africa, Australia,

western US – desertification• Scarcer food and water

worldwide• Gulf Stream decline and changes

weather patterns in Europe

+4o C – Extreme danger zone

• Arctic permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide locked in soils

• Arctic ice cover would disappear permanently (extinction of polar bears & native species)

• Further 5m rise in the sea level

+5 C – heaven help us!Global average temperatures

hotter than for 50 million years

Youth Protests

Canadian youth turn their backs on the Canadian Minister of the Environment

Abigail Borah interrupts Todd Stern press conference

http://www.wearepowershift.org/category/tags/abigail-borah

http://canadianyouthdelegation.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/press-release-youth-turn-their-backs-on-canadian-government-during-opening-speech/

Fossil of the Day

http://www.climatenetwork.org/fossil-of-the-day/new-zealand-earns-first-place-fossil-united-states-and-canada-share-%E2%80%9Ccolossal-foss

The Fossil of the Day goes to the countries that hold up negotiations the most. The US won Fossil of the Year