In 5 years we will have ‘lost for ever’ unless …..
The world is headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns, and if fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will ‘lose for ever’ the opportunity to avoid dangerous climate change
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/09/fossil-fuel-infrastructure-climate-change
Worst ever carbon emissions- Record rise, despite recession, means 2C target would be exceeded
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/carbon-emissions-nuclearpower
Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. “These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a ‘business as usual’ path. According to the IPCC projections, such a path … would mean a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100 ,”
For scenarios at each degree average global temperature increase, read this.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-five-climate-scenarios
Business as usual with more than 7 billion people is horrible.
3C has become increasingly likely: Extracts from this report are:
“After a 3C global temperature rise, global warming may run out of control and efforts to mitigate it may be in vain. Millions of square kilometres of Amazon rainforest could burn down, releasing carbon from the wood, leaves and soil and thus making the warming even worse, perhaps by another 1.5C. In southern Africa, Australia and the western US, deserts take over. Billions of people are forced to move from their traditional agricultural lands, in search of scarcer food and water. Around 30-50% less water is available in Africa and around the Mediterranean. In the UK, summers of droughts are followed by winter floods. Sea levels rise to engulf small islands and low-lying areas such as Florida, New York and London. “