2010 Diary week 18
Global warming, climate change and weather extremes
Book Review
A few snippets from Part I of The Breakdown of Climate, published in 1999: “El Niňo used to appear every few years, at most twice every decade. Over the past two decades it has even appeared several times in a row and its effects have become more pronounced.” “Sudden switches in climate have always been potentially disastrous for human populations; northern Europe suffered devastating famine in the late Middle Ages when the warm climate of the previous centuries vanished abruptly.” “1998 was the worst to date for climatic disasters, with worldwide estimates of damage amounting to more than $50 billion. Over the past ten years the cost of all natural catastrophes, many relating to climate, has risen 85 times above the cost for the 1960s.” “A small number of self-created experts, who represent the powerful interests of the fossil fuel lobby in the United States and the oil-rich nations of the Middle East, continue to lecture the world that current global warming either has nothing whatsoever to do with human activities, or is simply not happening.” “With current trends, instead of the maximum 4.5ºC average rise in temperature by 2100, indicated by the IPCC for a business-as-usual projection, average temperatures could rise by 10ºC or even 14ºC. The consequences in terms of climatic disruption would be enormous.”