A summary of global warming news stories from 2006.
With the Feb. 2 release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) fourth report on global warming – which said the effects are “very likely” caused by humans – the issue of climate change is in the news more than ever. But 2006 saw plenty of other headlines reporting dramatic global warming news:
The U.S. National Climatic Data Center said 2006 was the warmest year yet reported for the lower 48 states;
Scientists discovered that, in 2005, 41 square miles of the Ayles Ice Shelf – which has existed in Canada’s Arctic for thousands of years – broke free;
China issued its first report on global warming, which warns that parts of the country could see temperature increases of up to six degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by century’s end. The report also predicted increasing drought, water shortages and extreme weather due to climate change;
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case in which 12 states are suing the government to get the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from new cars;
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported that livestock around the world are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. The report also warned that livestock emissions are expected to continue growing as meat and milk production double by mid-century;
U.K. economist Sir Nicholas Stern issued a report warning that not taking action to curb climate change could create devastating economic fallout worldwide, including a global depression;
Scientists reported that, of more than 300 large glaciers they studied around the globe, almost all of them are shrinking;
The Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research warned that up to one-third of the world could be in extreme drought by 2100. Extreme drought, which means agriculture is basically impossible, currently affects no more than 3 percent of the globe;
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies reported that the Earth is now the warmest it’s been in 12,000 years, and is within 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit of the warmest temperatures of the past million years;
In California, legislators adopted a law that will require state industries to bring greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by the end of next decade;
The National Resources Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization warned that global warming could result in serious harm to 12 of the United State’s leading national parks;
Australia’s Lowy Institute warned that climate change – with the resulting food and water shortages, disease and coastal flooding – could cause major security troubles in the Asia Pacific region;
Scientists found that some small animals are actually evolving to adjust their reproductive cycles to the world’s earlier springs and later falls;
The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that Arctic sea ice failed to reach its normal size for the second winter in a row;
NASA reported that the Earth in 2005 saw the highest yearly global surface temperature ever recorded.
The copyright of the article Global Warming 2006 in Green/Simple Living is owned by Shirley Siluk Gregory. Permission to republish Global Warming 2006 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
