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The recently released Copenhagen Diagnosis is a report that reiterates
the scientific evidence for immediate action on climate change. The
study is described as the final scientific briefing book for the 192
countries attending COP15. The report was compiled by a group of 25
scientists from Europe, North America and Australia.
The report
addresses a wide range of evidence including retreating Arctic sea ice,
rising sea levels, soaring CO2 emissions and temperature increases. The
area of summer sea-ice melt during 2007-2009 was about 40 per cent
greater than the average projection by the IPCC. Sea levels have risen
five centimetres over the past 15 years, about 80 per cent higher than
expected. The authors of the Copenhagen Diagnosis warn, left unchecked,
sea levels could exceed one metre by 2100, flooding lands now home to
about 160 million people. In 2008, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels were
about 40 per cent higher than in 1990. If emissions are allowed to
continue rising, the report estimates global mean temperatures will
climb four to seven degrees Celsius by 2100.
The report
concludes global emissions must drop sharply for the world to have a
"reasonable chance" of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.
"To stabilize climate, a decarbonized global society--with near-zero
emissions of CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases --needs to be
reached well within this century."
Climate change deniers are
grasping at straws of misinformation. The reports co-author Hans
Joachim Schellnhuber, chair of the German Advisory Council on Global
Change stated,"They need to know the stark truth about global warming
and the unprecedented risks involved."
