Changing climate numbers

Published: February 22, 2009

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fourth assessment report, summarizing evidence collected and weighed by scientists around the world. At the time, it was the best estimate of where the planet was, climatically speaking, and the news the report offered was daunting.
The panel warned that further warming could have devastating consequences, including rising seas and widespread drought.
The 2007 assessment established a base line of expectation, but it is already looking outdated. Sea ice has melted more quickly than expected. And, according to a recent report from the United States Geological Survey, sea levels in 2100 could increase by more than double the 1.5 feet rise projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Add to that the hard reality that carbon dioxide is a long-lived gas, and the picture of global warming is both volatile and forbidding.
The authors of the climate-change panel's report knew that events could overtake their findings. A fifth assessment is currently under way.
It is imperative, of course, that the Obama administration - and every other government around the world - keep abreast of the changing data. What is equally imperative is that the governments tailor any prescriptions to the possibility of more ominous news in the future.