Climate change happening faster than predicted, new report says

Climate change is happening faster and on a broader scale than the world's scientists projected in 2007, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations Environment Program.




The new overview of global warming research, aimed at marshalling political support for a new international climate pact by the end of the year, highlights the extent to which recent scientific assessments have outstripped the predictions issued by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change two years ago.



That report declared that evidence of human-generated warming in the last half-century was "unequivocal" and would change the planet dramatically by 2100 unless greenhouse gas emissions drop sharply by 2050.



Achim Steiner, the U.N. environment agency's executive director, said at the National Press Club on Thursday that the new report aims to update the intergovernmental panel's finding to reflect both new physical evidence and a more sophisticated understanding of how earth systems work.



"With every day that passes, the underlying trends that science has provided is ... of such a dramatic nature that shying away from a major agreement in Copenhagen will probably be unforgivable, if you look back in history at this moment," Steiner said. Copenhagen is the site of major international climate conference in December.



Steiner noted that since 2000 alone, the average rate of melting at 30 glaciers in nine separate mountain ranges has doubled from the rate during the previous two decades.



"These are not things that are in dispute in terms of data," he said. "They are actually physically measurable."



Other findings include the possibility that sea level will rise by as much as six feet by 2100 instead of 1.5 feet, as the intergovernmental panel had projected.



Robert Correll, who chairs the Climate Action Initiative and contributed to the new U.N. report, said that even if all the pledges industrialized and developed countries have made to cut their greenhouse gas emissions are taken into account, global temperature would probably rise by 8 degrees Fahrenheit. That's two times higher than what scientists and world policymakers have identified as the upper limit of warming the world can afford to avert catastrophic climate change.



"We don't want to go there," Correll said, adding that global carbon emissions are still on the upswing. "It's accelerating, We're not going in the right direction."

Strong earthquake rocks Peru

A strong earthquake struck southeastern Peru on Wednesday afternoon, officials said.




The earthquake, which struck about 48 miles from Juliaca, Peru, had a preliminary magnitude of 5.9, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was initially reported as a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. It struck about 160 miles deep, making it a deep earthquake. Shallow earthquakes often tend to cause more damage.



There was no immediate report of damage or casualties following the tremor, but a spokesman for the USGS said he would not expect any significant damage as the epicenter was located very deep.



The quake follows a series of powerful earthquakes in just 24 hours. On Tuesday, a powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Samoa, creating deadly tidal waves that devastated Samoa and American Samoa.



On Wednesday, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia, leaving possibly up to 1,000 people killed.