New Studies Provide Further Proof of Climate Change

File this under "stories that shouldn't be news, but are": Three new reports by the highly respected National Research Council, a subsidiary of the National Academy of Sciences, argue that climate change is real and driven by human influences.

The reports, "Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change," "Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change," and "Advancing the Science of Climate Change," provide bad news about the state of the environment, but some good news about the courses of action currently in place to tackle it.

Collectively, the studies emphasize that the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation are two of the leading causes of global warming. " “Limiting the Magnitude of Future Climate Change" suggests the American government is on the right track with regards to curbing dangerous emissions. The Obama administration environmental goals, and current legislation to reduce GHG emissions 17 percent by 2020, are declared “reasonable"—though it can of course be argued that "reasonable" is not sufficient enough.

"Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change" hones on in on how important it is for for countries to prepare for the inevitable affects of climate change. It notes that adaptation must be unilateral, encompassing "federal, state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and community groups." Besides a consensus from disparate groups, it says that information about adaptation is wishy-washy, and not persuasive enough at present to convince the masses.

Finally, "Advancing the Science of Climate Change" takes a proactive approach, by suggesting that one federal entity take responsibility for researching global warming and sharing its findings with the public. Doing this, it says, is "essential to a complete understanding of climate change."

What's interesting about these studies is how utterly typical they are. Several leading scientific organizations, including NASA and the World Meteorological Organization, harp of the reality and threat of global warming all the time. The National Research Council does work "made possible by 6,000 of the world’s top scientists, engineers, and other professionals who volunteer their time without compensation to serve on committees and participate in activities." Yet it seems these studies are continuously ignored or at the very least downplayed, despite their cache. Which raises the question: What will it take for people to finally listen?

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