September 27, 2013

1 min read

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Climate Change: See the Dramatic New Data for Yourself [Slide Show]

Seven graphs, released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, clearly show how global temperature is rising, sea ice is shrinking, snow cover is dwindling, and more

By Mark Fischetti

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For those who doubt that the global climate is changing, seven new graphs should put that notion to rest. This morning the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first public summary of a six-year study called Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. It contains the report’s graphs and explains the data behind them. As a set, the graphs show strong trends over many decades: Average surface temperatures have risen up to 2.5 degrees Celsius in numerous places around the world, global sea level is has risen 20 centimeters, Arctic summer sea ice has shrunk by 4 million square kilometers, and so on.

During a press conference held to release the details, Thomas Stocker from the University of Bern in Switzerland and co-chair of the working group that wrote the report, said climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, adding: “It threatens our planet, our only home.” United Nations Secretary General Ban-ki Moon, appearing by Internet video at the press conference, said, "The heat is on. Now we must act." The U.N. convened the IPCC in 1988 to assess the state of the planet’s climate and the extent to which human actions are altering it. More than 600 scientist authors from 39 countries assessed some 9,000 peer reviewed studies and 54,000 comments to generate this latest report.

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Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

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