Climate scientists gather, and the news is not good

COPENHAGEN (AFP)


But a welter of new research suggests the impact could be even worse, and will arrive sooner rather than later.

“We need a much stronger sense in our societies of urgency,” John Ashton, Britain’s top climate negotiator, told journalists as the meeting got under way.

Most worrying, scientists say, is the possibility that human activity — mainly the burning of oil, gas and coal — could trigger natural drivers of global warming which, once unleashed, would be nearly impossible to reverse.

The shrinking of the Arctic ice cap, and the release of billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases trapped in melting permafrost are two such “positive feedbacks” that could become both cause and consequence of global warming.

AFP