Aussie report supports IPCC
Source: Agencies |
March 16, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AUSTRALIA'S top scientists yesterday released a "State of the Climate" report at a time of growing scepticism over climate change as a result of revelations of errors in some global scientific reports.
The scientists said their monitoring and research of the world's driest inhabited continent for 100 years "clearly demonstrate that climate change is real."
"We are seeing significant evidence of a changing climate. We are warming in every part of the country during every season and as each decade goes by, the records are being broken," said Megan Clark, head of Australia's state-backed Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged in January its 2007 report had exaggerated the pace of Himalayan glaciers melting, and last month said the report also had overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.
The 2007 report is based on the work of thousands of scientists and is the main policy guide for governments looking to act on climate change. Sceptics have leapt on the errors, saying they undermine the science of climate change but the IPCC, which has announced a review, has defended its work.
The CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology report said international research showed it is extremely unlikely that global warming could be explained by natural causes alone.
"There is greater than 90 percent certainty that increases in greenhouse gas emissions have caused most of the global warming since the mid-20th century," said the report.
"Evidence of human influence has been detected in ocean warming, sea-level rise, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns," said the report.
Since 1960, the mean temperature in Australia has increased by about 0.7 degrees Celsius, but some areas of the country had warmed by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years.
The scientists said their monitoring and research of the world's driest inhabited continent for 100 years "clearly demonstrate that climate change is real."
"We are seeing significant evidence of a changing climate. We are warming in every part of the country during every season and as each decade goes by, the records are being broken," said Megan Clark, head of Australia's state-backed Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organization.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change acknowledged in January its 2007 report had exaggerated the pace of Himalayan glaciers melting, and last month said the report also had overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.
The 2007 report is based on the work of thousands of scientists and is the main policy guide for governments looking to act on climate change. Sceptics have leapt on the errors, saying they undermine the science of climate change but the IPCC, which has announced a review, has defended its work.
The CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology report said international research showed it is extremely unlikely that global warming could be explained by natural causes alone.
"There is greater than 90 percent certainty that increases in greenhouse gas emissions have caused most of the global warming since the mid-20th century," said the report.
"Evidence of human influence has been detected in ocean warming, sea-level rise, continental-average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind patterns," said the report.
Since 1960, the mean temperature in Australia has increased by about 0.7 degrees Celsius, but some areas of the country had warmed by 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius in the past 50 years.
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