KTUU.com | Alaska's news and information source | New global warming report
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by Bianca Slota
Thursday, April 5, 2007
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A new report on the impacts of global warming reinforces the growing consensus that humans are likely contributing to the speed with which the earth's temperature is rising.
The intergovernmental panel on climate change is set to release its findings tomorrow in Belgium.
An international report released in Paris this February came out with the strongest consensus to date regarding man's impact on global change.
A report to be released tomorrow, takes it a step further.
Scientists now agree with "high confidence," and that's a meaningful term, that human-generated greenhouse gasses have contributed to the rate of global warming.
In Alaska we are on the ground floor for what scientists said are changes caused by global warming.
"We're seeing these changes taking place at a very rapid pace now, again having a lot more confidence now in these changes," said Dr. Jeffrey Welker with the University of Alaska Anchorage.
The report, compiled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the result of nearly five years of research and the combination of more than 500 scientific minds.
The IPCC is hoping it will shed light on the already noticeable impacts of global warming.
"The thing that's earth shattering about it is our level of confidence in terms of the observations are real, the manifestations are becoming more and more real," Welker said.
Globally, experts said ice shelves are melting and raising the world's sea levels.
Dr. John Walsh, a Fairbanks scientist and a contributor to the report, said governments may need to make substantial investments to move buildings and people away from coastlines.
"That statement is, as of now, in there with high confidence and that does apply directly to Alaska," Walsh said.
But, the forecast isn't all gloom and doom.
"The growing season in some of the interior areas may increase anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month or two," Walsh said.
That means more commercial growing, and a strengthening of local economies that depend on farming.
Barrow may face a shorter whaling season, but gain a larger window of opportunity to ship in supplies, from a week or two to a month.
Speaking of windows of opportunity, scientists say the time to act is now.
"If we don't stabilize, and continue the increased inputs of Co2 and other gases, we're really locking ourselves into a longer period of warming, and that means we're going farther into uncharted territory," Walsh said.
Scientists said their greatest challenge will be getting the information out in a way that everyone can understand.
Experts are also hoping that because of the scope of this study and the broad range of people who contributed to it, global warming skeptics will take a closer look and perhaps start to change their opinions.
Scientists in Antarctica are a little unsure if they are being affected the same way because the edge of the ice shelf does seem to be melting or breaking off, but the center is getting thicker.
That area of the globe is also warming at a slower rate than the rest of the earth.
E-mail Bianca Slota at bslota@ktuu.com
