Mario J. Molina, who won a Nobel Prize for identifying the danger to the ozone layer from chloroflourocarbon refrigerants, headed the American Association for the Advancement of Science committee that issued a recent report
sounding the alarm on climate change.The report sums up the consequences, present and potential, of continued emission of greenhouse gases in clear and accessible language. Summing up the current situation the report says:
The evidence is overwhelming: Levels of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere are rising. Temperatures are going up.
Springs are arriving earlier. Ice sheets are melting. Sea level is
rising. The patterns of rainfall and drought are changing. Heat waves
are getting worse, as is extreme precipitation. The oceans are
acidifying.
The New York Times summary of the report's discussion of future possibilities says:
The new report walks through a series of potential consequences of
planetary warming, without asserting that any is sure to happen. They
are possibilities, not certainties, and the distinction is crucial for
an intelligent public debate about what to do. The worst-case forecasts
include severe food shortages as warming makes it harder to grow crops; an accelerating rise of the sea
that would inundate coastlines too rapidly for humanity to adjust;
extreme heat waves, droughts and floods; and a large-scale extinction of
plants and animals.
