Question

Essay on how global warming is portending catastrophy?

Answer 1

At first global warming sounded like a good idea, especially to people in Northern climes. But starting in the 1960s, scientists recognized long-range problems, concentrating at first on sea-level rise and a threat to food supplies. New items were gradually added to the list, ranging from the degradation of ecosystems to threats to human health. Experts in fields from forestry to economics, even national security experts, pitched in to assess the range of possible consequences. It was impossible to make solid predictions given the complexity of the global system, the differences from one region to another, and the ways human society itself might try to adapt to the changes. But by the start of the 21st century, it was clear that climate change would bring serious harm to many regions — some more than others. Indeed many kinds of damage were already beginning to appear. (This essay does not try to cover the entire history of impact studies, but sketches some examples. Current scientific understanding of impacts is summarized 

Answer 2

A group of leading climate scientists have warned that the effects of global warming could come quicker and at a far bigger impact than originally thought.

Those consequences could include rising sea levels that would submerge coastal cities, storms that would be stronger than anything in history, and the large-scale melting of polar ice sheets, according to a paper in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics science journal released on Tuesday.

The paper has 19 authors, and one of the most prominent is Dr. James Hansen, a climatologist and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Earth Institute. Hansen is considered the first person to have raised awareness on climate change in a 1988 congressional testimony, and in an accompanying piece in the Huffington Post, looks at "how soon we will pass points of no return."

In December, 195 countries agreed to a climate change deal meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions. The paper, however, details that if there are no significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions across the world soon, the global sea level would likely rise “several meters over a timescale of 50 to 150 years." That could lead to the over-flooding of coastal cities around the world, which ties into another recent study that said New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, and Shanghai were at risk of submersion by 2100. Circulation in the Atlantic and Southern Ocean would also be affected, leading to storms that could be of a magnitude unlike the past.

Play VideoCan any presidential candidate save us from climate change?A Fortune Brainstorm E panel discusses which presidential hopeful is best suited for passing energy policy.

It's a timeline that clashes with those from other climatologists. “They conflict with the mainstream understanding of climate change to the point where the standard of proof is quite high,” Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told the New York Times.

Hansen is also a flashpoint, as he has arguably been taking on the role of activist in protests to supplement his work inside laboratories, according to the Times. However, his standing makes this paper noteworthy. “I think we ignore James Hansen at our peril,” said Mann.