Global Climate Change: Hearings Before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, on the Science and Energy Policy Implications of Global Climate Change and International Agreements Regarding Greenhouse Gas Emissions, May 6 and 12, 1992, Volume 4

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Page 204 - Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
Page 43 - There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing, magnitude and regional patterns of climate change, due to our incomplete understanding of: • sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, which affecl predictions of future concentrations.
Page 43 - ... the size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models, but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability. Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming • the unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.
Page 366 - The most significant uncertainty arises from the effects of clouds. The actual rate of warming over the next century will be influenced by the growth rate of greenhouse gases, natural fluctuations in the climate system, and the detailed response of the slowly changing parts of the climate system, ie, oceans and glacial ice. My own opinion, based on historical temperature records and recent cloud-radiation studies, is that the observed global warming is more likely to be in the lower half of this...
Page 366 - Observation of this effect may be obscured temporarily by the larger natural variability and slower responses in these regions relative to lower latitudes. Rise in Global Mean Sea Level (very probable) — A further rise of 4-12 inches in mean sea level by the middle of the next century is generally estimated due to thermal expansion of sea water in the warmer future climate. Far less certain are the contributions due to melting and calving of land ice. Predictions of actual rise rates for mean sea...
Page 83 - Foundation. **The National Center for Atmospheric Research Is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Page 44 - Increases in the concentration of the greenhouse gases will reduce the efficiency with which the Earth cools to space and will tend to warm the lower atmosphere and surface. The amount of warming depends on the size of the increase in concentration of each greenhouse gas, the radiative properties of the gases involved, and the concentration of other greenhouse gases already present in the atmosphere. It also can depend on local effects such as the variation with height of the concentration of the...
Page 47 - Scenario A (SA90) events and new information have emerged which relate to that scenario's underlying assumptions. These developments include: the London Amendments to the Montreal Protocol; revision of population forecasts by the World Bank and United Nations; publication of the IPCC Energy and Industry Sub-group scenario of greenhouse gas emissions to 2025; political events and economic changes in the former USSR, Eastern Europe and the Middle East; re-estimation of sources and sinks of greenhouse...
Page 175 - Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce, through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the...
Page 365 - My name is Jerry Mahlman. I am the Director of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , in Princeton, New Jersey.

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