Who Stands To Benefit From Climate Change?.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their synthesis report Sunday, Nov. 2nd. The report combines the Panel’s past work and reiterates the near unanimity in the scientific community regarding the man-made role in global climate change. Still, public and political perception is very much divided and the report aims to lay the foundation for a new global treaty on climate change by the end of next year. Stark in their assessment, the IPCC posits a grim future in the absence of any meaningful mitigation. Not all change is bad however, and, when examining the energy implications, global climate change produces its share of winners.
According to the Panel, the most recent 30-year period was likely the warmest of the last 1,400 years. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the oceans. Between 1971 and 2010, more than 90 percent of the energy accumulated in the climate system was stored in the ocean. Since the beginning of the industrial era, ocean acidification is up 26 percent and Arctic and sub-Arctic ice sheets have continued to shrink, increasing the rate of sea level rise worldwide. On land, spring snow cover has decreased in extent globally and permafrost temperatures have increased in most regions.
Globally averaged combined land and ocean surface temperatures, Source: IPCC
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