Dialing Back the Alarm On Climate Change

An anonymous reader writes "A leaked copy of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made the rounds and the good news is that the predicted temperature rise expected as a result of man-made emissions of carbon dioxide is lower than predicted in 2007. From the article: 'Admittedly, the change is small, and because of changing definitions, it is not easy to compare the two reports, but retreat it is. It is significant because it points to the very real possibility that, over the next several generations, the overall effect of climate change will be positive for humankind and the planet. Specifically, the draft report says that "equilibrium climate sensitivity" (ECS)—eventual warming induced by a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which takes hundreds of years to occur—is "extremely likely" to be above 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), "likely" to be above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and "very likely" to be below 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 Fahrenheit). In 2007, the IPPC said it was "likely" to be above 2 degrees Celsius and "very likely" to be above 1.5 degrees, with no upper limit. Since "extremely" and "very" have specific and different statistical meanings here, comparison is difficult.'"

Comments

In before

[Orp]

CLIMATEDERP!

Re:In before

[sycodon]

"Citation Needed" or variants should be a key word that cause the person uttering it to be attacked by 20 skanky female environmentalists who have been living in a tree for the last year.

Re:In before

[SteveFoerster]

Depending on what you mean by "attacked", I'm down.

Excellent!

[stoploss]

I look forward to the calm, rational, and coherent discussion!

For once, there may be a thread on this site that avoids tangenting off into politics. It will be refreshing to witness a debate that does not invoke Nazis, gun control, or the results of previous US elections, because those are totally offtopic and everyone will realize that.

Re:Excellent!

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you kidding? Climate change was out of control when Bush was president. Notice how now that Obama is president the climate change is not a big deal anymore? President Obama saved us! Thank goodness that all those people voted for Obama when I, as a very uneducated voter, voted for the other guy.

Re:Excellent!

[Jawnn]

I look forward to the calm, rational, and coherent discussion!

For once, there may be a thread on this site that avoids tangenting off into politics. It will be refreshing to witness a debate that does not invoke Nazis, gun control, or the results of previous US elections, because those are totally offtopic and everyone will realize that.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Also...

[Orp]

Two mistakes pop up immediately int the article - IPPC (eh? OK, typo) and "The Journal of the American Meteorological Society". It's IPCC and the Bulletin of the AMS (BAMS). Maybe this guy creamed himself while typing, it is the WSJ after all.

Context

[Anonymous Coward]

1.5 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit)

1.5 degrees Celsius is 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

TFS got its "4" right, you've got the "7" right, but there has to be a "3" in front of all:
1.5 degrees Celsius is 34,7 degrees Fahrenheit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature#Conversion

It's context that makes the difference. ;)

Re:How we used to view all of this in the Olden Da

[rrohbeck]

2) Putting less pollutants into the air, water, and ground is a good thing.

Not if you make lots of money from selling the polluting stuff.