Former CSIRO Atmospheric Research Chief - Aussie Climate Change Will Take Years, Not Decades

USTRALIANS will begin to see the stark effects of climate change within the next few years, not the next decades, a leading Australian scientist has warned.

Graeme Pearman, the former head of CSIRO's atmospheric research unit, yesterday released a report showing that evidence of global warming has dramatically increased in the past 12 months.

Dr Pearman told the Herald: "If you think climate change is on the agenda, just wait another couple of years. Every day the media are going to be reporting people seeing changes as a result of things we have already done and the implications of these all over the world: like the breeding patterns and migration patterns of birds and animals, the flowering times, the production capacity of farms and the impact of coastal erosion. We are going to get more of them, not in the next few decades but the next few years."

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Dr Pearman fears there is a "disconnect" between the level of urgency understood by the scientists and the actions of governments to change our use of energy. His report for the Climate Institute points out that already the IPCC evidence is out of date because new data on climate change has emerged in the past 12 months. This includes the melt of the Arctic sea ice this year at a much faster rate than any of the scientific models forecast. It shrunk the sea ice 40 per cent below its average size, losing an area twice the size of NSW. The growth in carbon emissions, mainly from fossil fuels, has also leapt in the past decade from 1.1 per cent a year to 3 per cent a year.

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/climate-change-to-take-just-years/2007/11/14/1194766770270.html