Sunday 27 November 2011

Good news? Or just more confusion and a further step into the grey area...

In the news today, covered by both the Economist and the New Scientist is the news that the climate is less sensitive to carbon dioxide than previously thought - this seems a good thing; of course it does in principle. This means that the IPCC's last estimate of climate sensitivity (which measures the amount of warming that can eventually be expected to follow a doubling in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide) is now being revised to 1.7 to 2.6 degrees as opposed to 2.6 degrees. No doubt though, this could either be a blip or will be heavily contested but it provides healthy debate which is ultimately the purpose of science.


Check out the more in-depth articles here: