• Main Author: Professor Mark Maslin
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.693.2442; http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/people/academic-staff/mark-maslin/files/Maslin+ISER+2012.pdf

We already have clear evidence for climate change with a 0.75°C rise in global temperatures and a 22cm rise in sea levels during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global temperatures by 2100 could rise between 1.8°C and 4.0°C, the range is due to the uncertainty of how much greenhouse gas we will emit over the next 90 years. Sea levels could rise between 28cm and 79cm, more if the melting of Greenland and Antarctica accelerates. In addition, weather patterns will become less predictable and the occurrence of extreme climate events, such as storms, floods, heat waves and droughts, will increase. In the UK, the science behind this has been taken seriously, and uniquely has led to the introduction of the long-term legally binding Climate Change Act. This Act provides a legal framework for ensuring that the Government meets the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. To do this, sustainable clean energy will be essential, because only through business and financial innovation, will it be possible to change the fundamental way we produce and use energy in the UK and the World. The greenhouse The temperature of the Earth is determined by the balance between energy from the sun and its loss back into space. Most of the incoming solar short-wave radiation (mainly