London: World’s most famous climate scientist, James Hansen, outlines an alarming scenario for planet’s future. With his 1988 US congressional testimony, the then-Nasa scientist is credited with putting the climate change issue on the map by saying that a warming trend had already begun. Along with 16 other researchers, including leading experts on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, he has authored a lengthy study outlining a scenario of potentially rapid sea-level rise combined with more intense storm systems.
The paper takes, as one of its starting points, evidence regarding accelerating ice loss from parts of the planet’s ice sheets, especially West Antarctica. He added that even a change in 2 degrees celcius could be very dangerous for the climate.
One of the co-authors on the paper, Eric Rignot of Nasa, the lead author of a 2014 study that suggested, as a Nasa release put it, that the decline of West Antarctica could now be ‘irreversible’. Hansen suggests the “doubling time” for ice loss from West Antarctica the period over which the amount of loss could double could be as short as 10 years. In other words, a non-linear process could trigger major sea-level rise in a time frame of 50 to 200 years.
June sets record in temperature
Last month was the hottest June on record globally, setting yet another in a string of temperature records, federal scientists said. A Monday report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also concluded that land and water surface temperatures each hit a new record in June, and the first half of 2015 was also the hottest on record.
The average temperature across all of the world’s land and ocean surfaces in June was 61.48 degrees Fahrenheit, the hottest since federal records began in 1880. It beat the previous record by 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit, which was set only last year. June is the third month this year to break its monthly record, after March and May, NOAA said in its report.
The other months of the year were not far behind. January and February were the second hottest on record and April was the fourth. The first half of 2015 also set a record as the hottest since 1880, beating the record set in 2010, according to the NOAA. Additionally, the 12 months that ended in June now comprise the hottest 12-month period in the NOAA’s records.
