<div class="storytitle" id="post-690">It would be wonderful progress if all those in public political positions, who have no specialized expertise in climate science (or those few, if any, who might), would publicly address the anthropogenic climate crisis, conceding that the consensus among currently publishing climate scientists (in credible peer reviewed journals) is overwhelming that humans are altering climate in a potentially catastrophic manner. Everyone in public political life who publicly minimizes this danger, offering support to the claim that there is substantial scientific evidence that the consensus position among climate scientists is seriously doubtful, is part of the problem, rather than the solution. The more citizens who demand action to address anthropogenic climate change, the easier it will be for the private and public sectors to address the problem:</div>
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<div class="storytitle">Article "A Warning From Copenhagen" below from climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf. Rahmstorf's bio:</div>
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<div class="storytitle"><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=53">http://www.realclimate.org/index.php?p=53</a></div>
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<p>A physicist and oceanographer by training, Stefan Rahmstorf has moved from early work in general relativity theory to working on climate issues. </p>
<p>He has done research at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany (in Potsdam near Berlin). </p>
<p>His work focuses on the role of ocean currents in climate change, past and present.</p>
<p>In 1999 Rahmstorf was awarded the $ 1 million Centennial Fellowship Award of the US-based James S. McDonnell foundation. </p>
<p>Since 2000 he teaches physics of the oceans as a professor at Potsdam University.</p></div>
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<h3 class="storytitle" id="post-690">A warning from Copenhagen</h3>
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<div class="storytitle"><a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/06/a-warning-from-copenhagen/#more-690">http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/06/a-warning-from-copenhagen/#more-690</a></div>
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<div class="storytitle">In March the biggest <a href="http://climatecongress.ku.dk/"><font color="#66aa55">climate conference</font></a> of the year took place in Copenhagen: 2500 participants from 80 countries, 1400 scientific presentations. Last week, the <a href="http://www.pik-potsdam.de/news/press-releases/files/synthesis-report-web.pdf"><font color="#66aa55">Synthesis Report </font></a>of the Copenhagen Congress was handed over to the Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen in Brussels. Denmark will host the decisive round of negotiations on the new climate protection agreement this coming December.
<p>The climate congress was organised by a "star alliance" of research universities: Copenhagen, Yale, Berkeley, Oxford, Cambridge, Tokyo, Beijing - to name a few. The Synthesis Report is the most important update of climate science since the <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/"><font color="#66aa55">2007 IPCC report</font></a>.</p>
<p>So what does it say? Our regular readers will hardly be surprised by the key findings from physical climate science, most of which we have already discussed here. Some aspects of climate change are progressing faster than was expected a few years ago - such as rising sea levels, the increase of heat stored in the ocean and the shrinking Arctic sea ice. "The updated estimates of the future global mean sea level rise are about double the IPCC projections from 2007¡È, says the new report. And it points out that any warming caused will be virtually irreversible for at least a thousand years - because of the long residence time of CO2 in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Perhaps more interestingly, the congress also brought together economists and social scientists researching the consequences of climate change and analysing possible solutions. Here, the report emphasizes once again that a warming beyond 2¨¬C is a dangerous thing: </p>
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<p>Temperature rises above 2¨¬C will be difficult for contemporary societies to cope with, and are likely to cause major societal and environmental disruptions through the rest of the century and beyond.</p></blockquote>
<p>(Incidentally, by now 124 nations have officially declared their support for the goal of limiting warming to 2¨¬C or less, including the EU - but unfortunately not yet the US.)</p>
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></div>