Climate scientists release the second half of their assessment. Joe Ware reports

The British weather has already dominated the news agenda this year with parts of the country seeing the wettest January since records began. The deluge has put global warming back on the agenda with prime minister David Cameron making the link between the UK floods and climate change.  All this comes just before the world’s leading climate scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), releases its report on the impact climate change is having around
the globe.

In September it released its verdict on the latest climate science, finding that it was now almost certain (a 95% likelihood) that human activity was the driving force behind climate change. At the end of March it publishes the second part, examining what impacts the science is having on the planet.

Because of the dire consequences we can expect if we remain on our current course of fossil fuel burning, there is sometimes the perception that climate change will only be felt by future generations.  The reality however is quite different. Climate change is biting hard in many parts of the world and already forcing humans to adapt.

What makes climate change such a scandal is that those having to alter their way of life did little to contribute the greenhouse gases which cause it.

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This is an extract from the the March 2014 edition of Reform.

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