Global warming is likely to be “at the top end of the IPCC [International Panel on Climate Change] scenario”, according to professor Corinne Le Quéré of East Anglia university, leader of a Global Carbon Project study into the Earth’s (declining) capacity to absorb carbon dioxide.
“If the agreement [at Copenhagen] is too weak, or the commitments are not respected, it is not 2.5C or 3C we will get: it’s 5C or 6C – that is the path we’re on,” said Le Quéré on 17 November.
A rise of 6C above pre-industrial levels would lead to “a mass extinction of almost all life and probably reduce humanity to a few struggling groups of embattled survivors clinging to life near the poles,” according to author Mark Lynas, who pooled the available scientific literature in 2007. Professor Le Quéré said: “The timescales here are extremely tight for what is needed to stabilise the climate at 2C,” regarded as a safe rise in global temperatures.
Topics: Climate change & climate action