Aus. Government Study - Pace Of Warming Far Faster Than Earlier Estimates

CANBERRA — Global warming could be happening faster than scientists had previously thought and weather extremes such as heatwaves could become common, an Australian government report said on Tuesday. The report by the Environment Department said there was a greater risk that global warming could now exceed previous predictions of a 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius rise in temperatures by the year 2100.

"The impacts of a changing climate are beginning to emerge," said the report, titled Stronger Evidence But New Challenges: Climate Change Science 2001-2005, adding that evidence of warming was becoming easier to observe. "High temperature extremes, such as the August 2003 heatwave in central Europe that had severe impacts on human health, are becoming more common."

The report said its findings were based on new research since the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections in 2001, which predicted temperature rises of between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The report downgraded the long-term cooling affect of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, and found melting snow and ice would cut the reflectivity of the earth's surface and add to rising temperatures. "The most dramatic example of this effect will likely occur in the Arctic Ocean, which is now projected to become almost totally ice-free in summer later this century," the report said.

EDIT

At the other end of the globe, the report said the Antarctic peninsula was warming strongly, leading to a rapid loss of ice shelves along the coast and speeding up movement of glaciers. By contrast, in the interior of Antarctica there had been an increase in snowfall, leading to an accumulation of ice over the centre of the continent. The report said the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continued to increase, while the upper layers of the world's oceans were warming.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=10523