American Meteorological Society revised climate change statement (Video)

ORIGINAL: The Examiner

BY: PAUL HAMAKER

AUGUST 27, 2012

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) released an updated Statement on Climate Change, replacing the 2007 version on August 27, 2012, that will be considered in effect unless revised until August 2017.

The statement is based on a review of the entire body of literature concerning climate change published by AMS members and other over the last five years. The statement is contextually applicable to the United States but is inherently global in nature according to the authors and contributors.

One should bear in mind that the majority of person who offer differing views of climate change are also members of and contributors to the AMS.

According to the researcher's analysis:

Observations show increases in globally averaged air and ocean temperatures, as well as widespread melting of snow and ice and rising globally averaged sea level. Surface temperature data for Earth as a whole, including readings over both land and ocean, show an increase of about 0.8°C (1.4°F) over the period 1901─2010 and about 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the period 1979–2010 (the era for which satellite-based temperature data are routinely available).

five of the emissions scenarios used by the IPCC, compared to the IEA's actual observational CO2 emissions data from fossil fuel consumption. Photo credit: Dana Nuccitelli http://www.skepticalscience.com/graphics.php This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The amount of rain falling in very heavy precipitation events (the heaviest 1% of all precipitation events) has increased over the last 50 years throughout the U.S. Freezing levels are rising in elevation, with rain occurring more frequently instead of snow at mid-elevations of western mountains.

It is clear from extensive scientific evidence that the dominant cause of the rapid change in climate of the past half century is human-induced increases in the amount of atmospheric greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), chlorofluorocarbons, methane, and nitrous oxide.

Observations indicate an increase in globally averaged water vapor in the atmosphere in recent decades, at a rate consistent with the response produced by climate models that simulate human-induced increases in greenhouse gases. This increase in water vapor also strengthens the greenhouse effect, amplifying the impact of human-induced increases in other greenhouse gases.

Confidence in the projections is higher for temperature than for other climate elements such as precipitation, and higher at the global and continental scales than for the regional and local scales. The model projections show that the largest warming will occur in northern polar regions, over land areas, and in the winter season, consistent with observed trends.

There is unequivocal evidence that Earth’s lower atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; sea level is rising; and snow cover, mountain glaciers, and Arctic sea ice are shrinking.

The position statement can be read in its entirety here.