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Scientists from NCAR and UCAR are among those who are responsible for the IPCC report coming out in February. The Rocky Mountain News (January 20, 2007) interviewed them on the process and the results:

"Change will last centuries

The concept of climate-change commitment has been around for about 20 years. What's new is that some of the latest, most sophisticated climate models now confirm the dire predictions of earlier, cruder simulations.

In a 2005 report in the journal Science, NCAR researcher Tom Wigley said that even if greenhouse gas levels could be magically stabilized today, sea levels would rise 10 to 20 inches per century for the next 400 years or more, imperiling coastal regions.

Because of carbon dioxide's long lifetime, actions taken today to reduce emissions 'mainly benefit the next generation and the generation after that,' Trenberth said.

'That's one of the things which I'm not sure is fully realized,' he said. 'This is a long-time-scale problem, and that's why you really want to get ahead of it.

'The other side of that is that it means we've got to live with climate change, and that means we should plan for it.' "

You can read the whole article here.

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