Sources & Notes Definition of Key Terms
The glossary published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the principal source for the technical definitions: www.ipcc.ch/pub/gloss.pdf and www.ipcc.ch/pub/syrgloss.pdf. Other sources for technical terms include: American Meteorological Society www.ametsoc.org California Climate Change Portal www.climatechange.ca.gov/glossary Glossary of Meteorology amsglossary. allenpress.com National Geographysical Data Center: www.ngdc.noaa.gov
Forewords
Wangari Maathai www.Greenbeltmovement.org Philippe Cousteau WWF. Living Planet Report 2010: Biodiversity, biocapacity and development. Gland: WWF International; 2010 www.footprintnetwork.org
Part 1: Signs of Change World Meteorological Organization. WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2010. Geneva: World Meteorological Organization; 2011. 2011. WMO-No.1074. “Climate change has a taste…” Atiq Rahman, in closing keynote at climate adaptation conference, Dhaka. 2011, March 31. One World Group http://oneworldgroup.org
1 Warning Signs
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group I. The physical science basis. Summary for policymakers. IPCC; 2007. www.ipcc.ch International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group II. Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Summary for policymakers, IPCC; 2007. www.ipcc.ch International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group III. Mitigation of climate change. Summary for policymakers. IPCC; 2007. www.ipcc.ch All three global temperature records agree that 2010 was tied as the warmest year on record, since 1850. The tie is with either 1998 or 2005, depending on which time series is used. Differences between 1998 and 2005 are only a few hundredths of a degree. In April 2007, the IPCC stated with “high confidence” that recent warming has affected terrestrial, marine and freshwater biological systems, glaciers and rivers. Based on an analysis of over 29,000 data sets, contained in 75 studies from around the world, it concluded that over 90 percent of observed changes were consistent with climate change. RECORD HIGHS Countries that set all-time heat records in 2010. Graphic by Climate Central. Data from Jeff Masters/Weather Underground. Countries that set all-time heat records in 2010 www.climatecentral.org
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OBSERVED CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS IPCC. Fourth Assessment Report, Working Group II. 2007. Figure 1.9. www.ipcc.ch Note: The cases of significant changes in observations of physical systems (snow, ice and frozen ground; hydrology; coastal processes) and biological systems (terrestrial, marine and freshwater biological systems) met the following criteria: (1) ending in 1990 or later; (2) spanning a period of at least 20 years; (3) showing a significant change in either direction. The paucity of observed data for Africa and Australia is apparent. Parmesan C, Yohe G. A globally coherent fingerprint of climate change impacts across natural systems. Nature 2003;421:37-42. Walther G-R. Community and ecosystem responses to recent climate change. Phil Trans R Soc B 2010;365(1549):2019-2024. USA: heat wave NOAA: US experienced above average temperatures, rainfall in September. 2010 Oct 7. www.noaanews.noaa.gov US Climate Extremes Index, NOAA www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/cei/ Russia: state of emergency NOAA. State of the Climate Report. August 2010 www.ncdc.noaa.gov China: floods Rainstorms hit China’s northeast as south bathes in heat. People’s Daily Online. 2010 Aug 14. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn Floods, landslides leave 3,185 dead in China this year. 2010 Aug 31. http://news.xinhuanet.com Death toll in flood-stricken south China nears 400. 2010 June 26. www.reuters.com Pakistan: floods Slingo J. Pakistan floods and extreme weather in August 2010. UK Met Office. www.metoffice.gov.uk National Disaster Management Authority (Pakistan). Summary of damages 2010. www.pakistanfloods.pk Preliminary damage estimates for Pakistani flood events. Ball State University - Center for Business and Economic Research. 2010 August. NASA Earth Observatory. MODIS Rapid Response Team. Australia: floods Special Climate Statement 24. Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. 2011 January 25. Queensland Police media release 2011 Jan 24. www.police.qld.gov.au Counting cost of Queensland floods. 2011 Jan 15. www.news.com.au
2 Polar Changes
Lemke P et al. Observations: changes in snow, ice and frozen ground. In: Solomon S et al. editors. Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press; 2007. pp 337-83. Perovich D et al. Sea Ice Cover 2010 www.arctic.noaa.gov [Accessed 2011 May 22]
Kwok R, Rothrock DA. Decline in Arctic sea ice thickness from submarine and ICESat records: 1958-2008. J Geophys Res Lett 2009;36. L15501, doi: 10.1029/2009GL039035. ANTARCTIC WARMING Two decades of temperature change in Antarctica. NASA Earth Observatory. 2007 Nov 21. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov Wilkins Ice Bridge Wilkins Ice Bridge collapse. 2009 April 8. NASA Earth Observatory. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov West Antarctic ice sheet Melting ice and sea-level rise Floral responses Turner J et al. Antarctic climate change and the environment. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK; 2009. ARCTIC Arctic change. Ice – sea ice. www.arctic.noaa. gov/detect/ice-seaice.shtml [Accessed 2011 March 15]. Potential shipping routes. European Space Agency www.esa.int [Accessed 23 Jan 2010]. “What direction are we taking...” Doyle A. Arctic melt threatens indigenous people. Reuters. 2007 Oct 2. www.reuters.com GREENLAND MELT Steffen K et al. The melt anomaly of 2002 on the Greenland Ice Sheet from active and passive microwave satellite observations. J Geophys Res Lett 2004;31(20). Hanna H et al. Runoff and mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet: 1958-2003. J Geophys Res 2005;110: D13108, doi:10.1029/2004JD005641. Greenland Melt Extent 2007. Konrad Steffen and Russell Huff Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder, CO 80309-0216 http://cires.colorado.edu
3 Shrinking Glaciers
GLACIAL RETREAT World Glacier Monitoring Service. www.geo.unizh.ch/wgms/mbb/sum08.html United Nations Environment Programme. 2009. Global glacier changes: facts and figures. www.grid.unep.ch/glaciers/ World Global Monitoring Service. Fluctuations of glaciers (FoG) 1995–2000: www.geo.unizh.ch/wgms/fog.html WWF, Going, going, gone. Climate change and global glacier decline: www.panda.org Mastny L, Worldwatch Institute. Melting of Earth’s ice cover reaches new high. www.upe.ac.za Dyurgerov MB, Meier MF. Glaciers and the changing Earth system: A 2004 snapshot. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Occasional Paper 58; 2005. THINNING OVER TIME THINNING World Glacier Monitoring Service op. cit. United Nations Environment Programme.