Are the effects of Climate Change occurring with greater intensity and sooner than many have predicted?
In some respects yes they are. The next installment in the series of IPCC reports will be published in November and this will state that climate change is, in general, happening faster than previously expected. Unfortunately the Bush Administration (and others) likes to interfere with these reports, the result being that the public document is a ‘watered down’ version of the original and as such the effects of climate change are often underplayed anyway. Often the scientists predictions are more accurate than the public may otherwise believe. New and improved data is constantly emerging and revisions to past predictions are needed to bring them up to date. In this respect two of the most important findings are that the world is warming faster than previously predicted and the Arctic ice is melting much faster than expected. Latest figures show the annual global temperature is rising by 0.0177°C per year (1°C per 56 years), previously the figure was 0.0156°C per year (1°C per 64 years).
