German Scientist Warns Climate Change Accelerating: " previous predictions too optimistic "

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3907790,00.html

29.12.2008

German Scientist Warns Climate Change Accelerating

Climate change is happening more rapidly than anyone though possible, the German government's expert, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, warned in an interview.

The threats posed by climate change are worse than those imagined by most governments, warned Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, the scientist who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research on Global Warming Effects and acts as an adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on climate-change issues.

Schellnhuber warns that previous predictions about climate change and its catastrophic effects were too cautious and optimistic.

"In nearly all areas, the developments are occurring more quickly than it has been assumed up until now," Schellnhuber told the Saarbruecker Zeitung newspaper in an interview published Monday, Dec. 29. "We are on our way to a destabilization of the world climate that has advanced much further than most people or their governments realize."

Melting ice, rising water levels

The Arctic sea ice is melting more quickly than expected. There are also signs that the entire climate pattern at the North Poll has been disrupted to the extent of causing irreversible change.

…

[defendandprotect]

1. Americans are very poorly informed on this issue --- purposefully---!!!

Also re the depth of pollution of the planet ---

[XemaSab]

2. .

[Barrett808]

3. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson:

"Eggheads -- what do they know?"

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. It's worse than that

He's a German egghead.

[Gregorian]

5. Don't look at me.

I want my warm showers. And espresso. And internets! Is that asking so much?

/yes.


It's going to continue until we back off the petroleum burning. And that isn't going to happen soon. So... It should make for some exciting times. It's us versus the planet. And things are going very well for us.

[Indenturedebtor]

7. It's not just the petroleum, it's the beef eating, coal burning, 4 baby having

etc. I've seen plenty of people on DU defend the idea of having 8 kids :puke:

This planet is fucked. I'm doing everything I can short of living like a Luddite, but I have nearly zero hope that we will have much of a world left in 30 years.

[lfairban]

8. 'Tis a gift to be simple,

'Tis a gift to be free.

[Indenturedebtor]

9. Free of possessions or free of thoughts? Both are a curse really

It's hard to put the genie back in the bottle when you have both though.

[guardian]

11. Maybe this will help you feel better

http://www.appinsys.com/GlobalWarming/GW_Part4_ClimaticEvents.htm#sea

[Delphinus]

6. First it was the English,

now it's the Germans. And what have we done? Yes, we've elected Obama, but we've not yet begun to educate the uneducated. Then again, with people like creationist Congressman Mark Souder being in office, and elected time after time, perhaps there's no educating we can do. :shrug:

[Dead_Parrot]

10. First it was the English...

When the English produced too much,
I did not cut down;
I was not really English.

When they laid into the Consumers,
I did not cut down;
I was not really a Consumer.

When they blamed the Car Drivers,
I did not cut down;
I was not really a Car Driver.

When they villainised the Meat Eaters,
I remained silent;
I was not really a Meat Eater.

When reality came for the 6.7 billion,
I was fucked.

--With apologies to Martin Niemφller (who got out early, although a lot later that he nearly did)