A temperature of -32.1 °C doesn’t feel warm. But in Concordia, Antarctica, it qualifies as positively balmy; last year the temperature plummeted to -77.8 °C. The likely cause for this year’s warming is emissions of greenhouse gases, which hit record high levels in the atmosphere in 2007. Glaciers are shrinking three times as fast as they were 20 years ago, and the oceans are absorbing less carbon, weakening a brake on global warming.
Yet amid the rising tide of gloomy scientific findings there is a glimmer of hope. The world has never been more aware of climate change, and most key players now acknowledge that comprehensive emissions reductions will be needed to keep it in check.
When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its , the world’s media accepted the now overwhelming evidence that global warming is real and dangerous. Gone are the days when sceptics, often funded by the oil industry, would get undeserved attention, and fewer opinion editors now earn dunces’ caps for publishing pseudo-science by climate change deniers.
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While the IPCC shared the in October for its efforts in highlighting the risks of climate change, arguably the most significant moves came in the US Congress. No fewer than 12 bills have been proposed, one of the most prominent calling for cuts in emissions of 60 per cent by 2050. A tough and truly global agreement on emissions won’t happen tomorrow, but with a new US president due it may not be long till America finally commits to the cause.
Read all the biggest stories of 2007 in our News Review
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