Sierra Club Canada Releases Scary ‘Climate Change Science Since 2007’ Report

(Ottawa) While the eyes of the world are on the Copenhagen climate talks, Sierra Club Canada (SCC) has released a report that summarizes the current state of global climate change. Climate Change Science Since 2007 reviews the developments in climate change science since the publication of the Nobel Prize winning 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report, presenting an update on the science underpinning the climate change debate. The SCC report and a power point presentation summary can be found here.

“Canadians need an accessible source of real information on climate change science,” said John Bennett, SCC’s executive director. “People are hearing a lot of conflicting information about global warming, so we’ve compiled a summary of the science for a non-academic audience.”

“Much more is known now about the speed at which the planet is warming and the impacts that are occurring already,” said report author Paul Beckwith. “Climate Change Science Since 2007 presents what has been learned since the last IPCC report in a concise form.”

The report findings include:

• The latest science projects a rise of at least one metre by 2100, compared to the 0.59 meter rise predicted by the IPCC in 2007

• Arctic sea-ice summer melt between 2007 and 2009 was significantly greater than scientists expected to see

• Oceans absorb one third to one half of carbon dioxide emissions, changing the chemistry of the entire ocean and making it more than 40% more acidic in recent decades

• Greenland and Antarctica ice-melt is accelerating.  Greenland is melting from above and Western Antarctica is melting from below

• Ocean dead zones that are almost void of life and have very low oxygen levels are becoming larger and more numerous and some are now thought to be due to ocean warming and acidification from climate change