The Polling Blog

The world is struggling to keep global warming to two degrees celsius as governments cannot agree on the steps. Even if they agree, it will be too little too late to save the Arctic ice cap and the sea will rise 6-7 metres, says a senior expert of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC).

New research carried out since AR4 shows that the "risk of additional sea level rise from both the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets may be larger than projected and could occur on century time scales". Hare, considered the world's leading scientist on polar ice caps, delivered a dire warning to the over 9,000 delegates attending the Poznan summit, which is stuck over the ways to limit global warming by 2100 to two degrees Celsius above the levels of the pre-Industrial Age.

In the Greenland ice sheet that covers the north polar region "warming as low as 1.9 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial could lead to irreversible meltdown", Hare said, adding: "This could lead to a sea level rise of 6-7 metres." In the west Antarctic ice sheet too, "risk of disintegration increases with warming", Hare said. "Observed losses (have) increased 75 percent (in the) last 10 years." This can lead to further rise of 4-5 metres in the sea level.

Is there still something we can do to minimise the global warming?

Posted by Young-India Minds at Tuesday, December 09, 2008