{"id":848,"date":"2012-12-12T14:11:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T14:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/?p=848"},"modified":"2013-02-04T12:58:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-04T12:58:20","slug":"environment-advisor-climate-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/2012\/12\/environment-advisor-climate-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Environment Advisor’s talk on climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you are in any doubt that climate change is the biggest issue of our time, then I highly recommend watching the talk given by Prof Robert Watson, the former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA<\/a>), at the American Geophysical Union (AGU<\/a>) conference last week.<\/p>\n

The talk is not too technical, so is understandable to a wide audience.\u00a0 In it, he summarises the latest scientific data on climate change.\u00a0 He covers current trends, future projections and the ways that we must adapt to limit its effects.\u00a0 The outlook is grim.\u00a0 The main points are that global temperatures will almost certainly rise by more than 2\u00b0C and so we must plan for increased droughts and storms, sea level rises, reduced crop yields, displaced people and widespread extinction of many species.\u00a0 The way we live is going to look very different in 30-50 years time.<\/p>\n

The full video is 1 hour long.\u00a0 You can watch it below, or on the AGU website<\/a>, where there is discussion on the comments.\u00a0 If you have less time, I have made links that skip to the various sections (see below).\u00a0 Of these, the two that you must watch are the sections on observations and projected changes<\/a> (less than 7 minutes; 05:00-11:22) and on the 2\u00b0C limit and how we will miss it<\/a> (5 and a half minutes; 30:05-35:22).<\/p>\n