LEEF Articles
Climate Radio is back!
by Phil England
This Week’s Programme
To start, we revisit some of the results and implications of last year’s IPCC Report as well as looking at the recent observations from the Arctic. Our guides this week are two scientists who have acted as expert reviewers for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – Joanna Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College London and Dr Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility.
Key findings
- None of the IPCC scenarios keep us within a 2C global average temperature rise (compared to pre-industrial times) which has been defined by the EU as a dangerous level that must not be exceeded
- The climate computer models used by the IPCC have been underestimating Arctic ice loss – recent observations suggest that there is now a 50% chance that the north pole may be ice-free this summer
How to listen…
- Listen to the live webstream at www.resonancefm.com on Thursdays at 7:30-8pm and repeated on Tuesdays at 1-1:30pm.
- Listen to the live broadcast in central London by Resonance104.4FM (same times as above).
- Listen at a time of your choosing online at www.climateradio.co.uk – please note the latest programme will go live in a day or two.
We hope to make the new shows available throught the podcast feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/climateradio and iTunes (search for “Climate Radio”) in the near future.
What’s coming up?
Later in the series we will be covering the 2008 Camp for Climate Action and looking at the calls for moratoriums on biofuels and new coal developments. There’ll be a new show every week for at least the next three months and we currently have more ideas than shows…
Sources and references for this week’s programme
- IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group I Summary for Policy Makers
- IPCC Fourth Assessment Report Working Group II Summary for Policy Makers
- Independent – North Pole Could Be Ice Free This Summer
- BBC – IPCC Models Underestimate Rate of Arctic Ice Melt
- James Hansen on Arctic Ice Melt
- Rajendra Pachauri – IPCC Chair, Rajendra Pachauri (November 2007): If there’s no action before 2012, that’s too late. What we do in the next two or three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.
