500 Top Climate Scientists Convene In Paris In Run-up to IPCC Release - AFP

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The world's top climate experts were geared for a four-day meeting beginning Monday in Paris where they are set to launch a long-awaited update about the scientific evidence for global warming. The report, to be released on Friday after the conclusion of the meeting, is the first by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 2001 and the fourth since the body was launched in 1988.

The IPCC's reports are highly regarded for their neutrality and caution, and they wield a big influence over government policies, corporate strategies and even individual decision-making. In 2001, the IPCC declared that carbon pollution from burning oil, gas and coal had helped drive atmospheric levels of CO2 to their highest in 420,000 years.

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The British daily The Independent reported Monday that a draft of the report that it saw forecast temperature increases of between 2.0 and 4.5 C (3.6 and 8.1 F) as highly likely this century, but that gains of 6.0 C (10.8 F) or more cannot be ruled out. The scientists are also expected to point to fresh evidence that change is already happening and could accelerate.

Recent signs of damage to the climate system have been shrinking glaciers and snow cover in high mountains, a retreat of the North Pole's sea ice in summer and acidification of the seas caused by absorption of atmospheric CO2. "Anthropogenic (man-made) warming of the climate system is widespread and can be detected in temperature observations taken at the surface, in the free atmosphere and in the oceans," said the draft of the report seen by The Independent.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2006/070129050152.61hu2uaj.html

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