Europe will suffer badly from climate change - Public Service

[Colin] Jones, who is head of the European Commission's €7m Earth System Model Bias Reduction and Assessing Abrupt Climate Change project and director of the Rossby Centre at the Swedish government agency SMHI, admitted that the plan to limit global warming to a two degree increase was probably out of reach... "We are taking our planet into new territory, a place we have never been before, and we don't know what the outcome will be," said Jones. "The pace at which we are heading towards the cliff is accelerating; the rate of temperature change is very different to anything we have ever experienced before..."

Overwhelming scientific data shows that there has been a dramatic rise in global temperatures since the 1960s, in close correlation with rising carbon emissions and industrialisation. ...Jones dismissed the leak and insisted it was simply a rehash of the same messages that were previously leaked.

In a dark warning to Europe, he claimed that the Mediterranean region was already starting "to dry out" – with warming meaning the wet areas would become wetter and dry areas would become drier, as a result of "feedback loops". He explained: "The Med region will see intense water supply problems in the future. The amplification is caused by feedback processes. Also, we might see a thaw of the permafrost in northern latitudes, releasing more carbon dioxide and methane. And we know that the Arctic sea ice has been thinning since 1984 – much of it is not there in the summer now. In addition, carbon sinks like the Amazon may become less efficient as the atmosphere changes in a warmer world. The acidity of the ocean has been changing solidly for the past 20 years and coral reefs are starting to die."

At Last: Europe Abandons Folly Of Unilateral Climate Policy

The European Union’s demand for a road map leading to the next legally-binding global warming treaty raises a hurdle that may snarl negotiations at the United Nations climate conference this week. The 27-nation bloc said it accounts for about 11 percent of global emissions and that it can’t act alone on emissions blamed for damaging the environment.

UN climate boss cries, thanks churches| News24

Durban - UN climate change boss Christiana Figueres on Sunday cried when she thanked religious organisations for their contribution to fighting climate change.

Against Evidence-Based Policy-Making » Climate Resistance

I was trying to make the point that a lot is presumed about science’s ability to answer deeper political and moral questions, and of course that politicians and other officials are somewhat promiscuous in their use of ‘evidence’. It’s not an argument against evidence, though no doubt some people will read it that way.