The Copenhagen Diagnosis

I have been closely following the new climate change bill in Washington right now and am anxiously waiting to see how (and if) the US will act in December in Copenhagen, Denmark where world leaders will meet to develop a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol.


The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released a report that climate change is currently worse than predicted. They call is the "Copenhagen Diagnosis":

-Global carbon dioxide emissions are up 40 per cent from 1990.
-Both Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass at an accelerating rates, as are glaciers worldwide
-Summer-time melting of Arctic sea-ice during 2007-2009 was about 40% greater than the average prediction from the IPCC's last report.
-Global average sea-level has risen at a rate 80% above past IPCC predictions over the past 15 years.
-Several vulnerable elements in the climate system (e.g. continental ice-sheets. Amazon rainforest, West African monsoon and others) could pass irreversible tipping points if warming continues in a business-as-usual way throughout this century.

I am writing a paper about how the US is preparing for Copenhagen and the current climate change bill--I will keep you posted :) http://www.ipcc.ch/