Reports
TNC’s California program has developed a series of reports that relate future climate projections to the climate history of California’s project sites, and that discuss some of the likely implications. http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/CA.climate.change/documents/
Preliminary review of adaptation options for climate-sensitive ecosystems and resources
From U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research http://www.climatescience.gov/Library/sap/sap4-4/final-report/
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC 4th assessment Working Group II (Impacts and Adaptation)
Taken from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ipcc2007.html
The Summary for Policymakers of the second volume of the IPCC's new assessment report “Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” was released on April 6, 2007. You may download the Summary for Policymakers from the IPCC Web site. The full report is now available at http://www.ipcc-wg2.org/index.html.
The report, prepared by IPCC Working Group II, assesses current scientific understanding of impacts of climate change on natural and human systems, their capacity to adapt and their vulnerability.
The key findings in the Working Group II Summary for Policymakers follow:
- Evidence from many parts of the world show that people, plants and animals are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.
- Warming caused by human activities has likely1 had a discernible influence on plants and animals.
- More detailed information is now available about how climate change will impact water resources, ecosystems, agriculture and forestry, health, coastlines and regions of the world. These impacts will likely be both positive and negative across regions although it is very likely1 that all regions will experience declines in benefits or increases in costs if global average temperatures warm more than 3.6-5.4 degrees F.
- A mix of adaptation (preparing for and responding to climate change impacts) and mitigation (e.g. reducing greenhouse gas emissions) can reduce the risks of climate change.
1 On this page the following terms, as defined by IPCC 2007, are used to 99% probability of occurrence, Extremely likely > 95%, Very likely > 90%, Likely > 66%, More likely than not > 50%, Very unlikely < 10%, Extremely unlikely < 5%.
