The Impact of a Global Temperature Rise of 4 deg Celsius
Inaugurating the seminar on Low Carbon Growth on 12th November, 2009 (organised by the British High Commission, Singapore in partnership with SEAS and supported by SBF ), the Acting British High Commissioner Ms Amanda Brooks introduced the new interactive map released by the Met Office Hadley Centre in collaboration with several organisations engaged in climate change research.
Click on any factor e.g., Forest Fire and then zoom in on any region that gets encircled such as the Amazon. You’ll see that surface temperatures are likely to be up by 6 to 8 deg C. This could imply that large areas of the Amazon forest might disappear due to the uncontrolled spread of fire.
As Ms. Brooks highlighted, a 4 deg C average rise in global temperature could translate to 5 1/2 deg C rise in average land temperatures. In some areas, this could even mean 6 – 12 deg C rise on very hot days. So the effect of average temperature changes will be very uneven across the globe. About 150 million people are likely to be affected by flooding caused by a rise in sea levels. The impact on agriculture, especially cereal crops will be huge in terms of lower yields.
Download the pdf version of the above map here to get the full explanation of how the impact is felt on the Amazon Forest, Agriculture, Water Availability, Sea-levels, Carbon-Cycle, Marine Ecosystems, Glaciers and Weather Patterns.
The map is posted on “Act on Copenhagen” which is the official UK government website that represents its position on climate change negotiations in Copenhagen 2009.
I would like to touch upon another phenomenon that is associated with temperature rises of above 2 deg celsius which is considered the safe limit for the climate, for which planetary carbon emissions should be contained to 350 ppm. A temperature rise of 4 deg Celsius is highly likely to trigger feedback loops which magnify the effects of man made global warming and accelerate further runaway, catastrophic rise in temperatures. Here’s an animation that explains the concept.
You may find this interesting:
Kirsty Lewis talking about the map showing the impact of a global temperature rise of 4 degrees celsius: Video
Met Office Climate Change Guide : The Facts
New Scientist article: No rainforest, no monsoon: get ready for a warmer world
Blog posts supporting the 10:10 campaign initiated by “The Age of Stupid” movie team to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010
Short URL: http://www.ecowalkthetalk.com/blog/?p=1053
Posted by admin
on Nov 14 2009. Filed under Carbon Footprint, Climate Change.
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