Following the IPCC Working Group I report’s unveiling at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, representatives of the global scientific community declared their report to contain unequivocal evidence that humans are the driving force behind global warming.
The report specifically states that human activity has been directly responsible for increases in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide since 1750.
Recent increases in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are so divergent from global patterns over the past several thousand years that “there is no doubt that increase is dominated by human activity,” said Dr. Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Furthermore, the report stated if atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations reach double their pre-industrial levels, the earth would likely experience an average rise in temperature of 3.6 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
The IPCC, which was established by the UN in 1988, released its last report on climate change in 2001.
Friday’s report contains information gleaned from the input of 600 authors representing 40 countries, and is the first report issued by the IPCC to document the deterioration of massive quantities of ice in both Antarctica and Greenland, contribution to rising sea levels.
IPCC Chairman, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, said the combined global effort was “a unique example of science in the service of society.”
“February 2 will be remembered as the date when uncertainty was removed as to whether humans had anything to do with climate change on this planted,” said Executive Director of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Achim Steiner. “We are looking for an unequivocal response from politicians. The evidence is on the table, we no longer have to debate that part of it.”
The IPCC is set to deliver three more reports this year. The Working Group II report will be unveiled in Brussels on April 6 and Working Group III will be released in Bangkok on May 4. The fourth and final report of the series will serve as a summation of its predecessors. The Synthesis Report, as it will be titled, will be released on November 16 in Valencia, Spain.
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