By Nick Heath, 22 May 2008 17:21
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Google Earth is painting in stark colours how climate change will affect the planet and its people over the next century.
World-leading climate science from the UK's Met Office Hadley Centre has been used to show global temperatures over the next 100 years given a mid-range projection of greenhouse gas emissions.
The Climate Change in Our World overlay shows that nowhere in the world will escape warming as countries darken from cool blues and light greens to warmer emerald, yellows and even angry reds over the decades.
Here is Europe and Africa in 2099 where the temperature increase ranges from about three degrees Celsius up to about 12 degrees.
UK environment secretary Hilary Benn said in a statement: "This project shows people the reality of climate change using estimates of both the change in the average temperature where they live, and the impact it will have on people's lives all over the world, including here in Britain."
Photo credit: Google
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Jeremy Wickins
It is just guesswork. There are equally good forecasts that say the North Atlantic Conveyor will stop, and Britain will be significantly cooler. No one really knows. Climates change - they always have, they always will. We just have to live with it. On the whole, though, I'd sooner have the warming, than have glaciers rolling down the A1 ...
2. Richard
That's odd: Government scientists presenting results from computer models as if they were "facts"; politicians presenting political statements as "science"; even the media confusing the difference between a "layer" on Google Earth and the underlying factual maps.
Sadly, the real need to reduce our dependence on imported fuels, together with the obvious need to reduce pollution and waste, are being eclipsed by this "junk science."
3. Mark Hipwell
Considering that the UK has been a tropical island, underwater and under a mile of ice in the past, I fail to see how anyone can say that climate change is something we can either predict or stop. We might have an accelerating effect on a particular type of change but we may also be having a dampening effect. No-one knows.
We cannot actually predict the weather more than a few days in advance and even then not with certainty. Yet some computer modellers think they can predict the weather and climate a hundred years into the future?
Rubbish, I'm afraid. And so many people and politicians seem to believe it. Sad, really.
4. R Gross
Sad really that so many people swallow the climate change denial factoids so readily. The previous comments are very good representations of the story touted by right wing media but if you look at the science, that is read some of the peer reviewed scientific literature, you'll see just how some parts of the media distort the reality.
That said I do understand. I've been studying the environment for 5 years in a part time OU degree and it's hard work.