Kids Global Climate Change Institute (KGCCI) Leaders [are] throwing their people to the wolves of energy insecurity, price volatility & climate chaos. The [Third] IPCC report lays out a saner, safer approach.... António Guterres

"DHARAMSALA: Recent decades have likely been the wettest on record in the semi-arid Tibetan plateau, researchers say, warning that any further large-scale warming might lead to even greater rainfall in Tibet, the birthplace for Asia's great rivers. 

The wettest individual year reconstructed in 3,500 years in northeastern Tibet is 2010, say climate researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in an online paper in US academic journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

It says precipitation during the past 50 years in the plateau has been historically high. The researchers have reconstructed precipitation records by using sub-fossil, archaeological and living juniper tree samples from the plateau. 

They reveal a trend towards wider growth rings on trees, implying moister growing conditions, with the last 50 years seeing increasing amounts of rainfall."

"David Cameron has today reasserted his commitment to tackling climate risks, insisting his "view has not changed" since he took office and he still regards climate change as one of the greatest threats facing humanity."

"Although it was wrong to 'attribute any one event to climate change', he urged the government to invest more in flood defences as there would be 'more flooding, more storms' in future.

Not to do so was a "totally false economy", he argued.

Meanwhile, PM David Cameron has vowed to do all he can to help flood victims.

Speaking on a visit to Purley on Thames in Berkshire, Mr Miliband said: "Local people have incredible knowledge about what needs to be done, and the help that needs to be provided, and they should be listened to.

It's clear that flood defence needs to be more of a priority for government.'"

As a U.S. Olympian I've seen how global warming is harming the sport, as well as lives.

"It took four years of intense training, but I am now in Sochi as a proud member of the US Cross Country Skiing Olympic Team. It is an incredible honor to represent my country and my community at the Olympic Games. While our U.S. team walked out together during the Parade of Nations at the Opening Ceremonies, I was moved by the power of almost 100 nations uniting behind a spirit of global competition and collaboration. While thousands of athletes put their issues aside to come together for one cause every four years it troubles me that world leaders have yet to unite and cooperate as a global community. For me, the most pressing issue is the threat of rapid global climate change to my work, my sport, and my love — skiing.

As a skier, my life revolves around winter and being outside. Years spent training have not only honed my skills, but also shown me the negative impacts of climate change first-hand. There have been countless times in the past 10 years when our early season competitions have been delayed or canceled due to lack of snow, or our spring and summer training camps disrupted due to erratic weather or insufficient snowpack. It's no coincidence then that the last decade was also the hottest decade ever recorded."

"As a young naval officer in Vietnam, John Kerry commanded a Swift boat up the dangerous rivers of the Mekong Delta. But when he returned there last month as secretary of state for the first time since 1969, he spoke not of past firefights but of climate change.

“Decades ago, on these very waters, I was one of many who witnessed the difficult period in our shared history,” Mr. Kerry told students gathered on the banks of the Cai Nuoc River. He drew a connection from the Mekong Delta’s troubled past to its imperiled future. “This is one of the two or three most potentially impacted areas in the world with respect to the effects of climate change,” he said.

In his first year as secretary of state, Mr. Kerry joined with the Russians to push Syria to turn over its chemical weapons, persuaded the Israelis and Palestinians to resume direct peace talks, and played the closing role in the interim nuclear agreement with Iran. But while the public’s attention has been on his diplomacy in the Middle East, behind the scenes at the State Department Mr. Kerry has initiated a systematic, top-down push to create an agencywide focus on global warming.

His goal is to become the lead broker of a global climate treaty in 2015 that will commit the United States and other nations to historic reductions in fossil fuel pollution."

The Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report provides a comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change in 14 chapters, supported by a number of annexes and supplementary material. 
 

The approved Summary for Policymakers is available here http://goo.gl/flRXHg  and the accepted final draft of the full Working Group I report is available here http://goo.gl/eJDKXJ.

"This visualization shows how global temperatures have risen from 1950 through the end of 2013.

NASA scientists say 2013 tied for the seventh warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the 10 warmest years in the 133-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record."

Hannah Cloke: The Environment Agency could spend its entire budget on flood prevention and Somerset would still be submerged. 'Soft' engineering – using nature – is cheaper and more effective

"Pakistan has suffered an accumulative loss of $15 billion due to floods in recent three years while 22.8 percent area and 49.6 percent population of the country is at risk of climate change impact. Director General, Pak Environmental Protection Agency, Asif Shuja Khan, revealed this on Tuesday while briefing members of Senate Sub-committee of the Functional Committee on Human Rights. 

Pakistan has been facing grave environmental degradation that costs six percent of the GDP, amounting to Rs 365 billion per annum, he said, adding that German watch has ranked Pakistan amongst the 10 most vulnerable countries since 2010. Khan said the accelerated jumps in the mean temperature trend after 1950s over Pakistan are much higher as compared to the global change. 'The warming over Pakistan is twice as fast as the global mean change over the period 1981-2005. The mean temperature in Pakistan has risen 0.74 degree Celsius from 1991 to 2005,' he informed the participants. 

The global warming is increasing with the passage of time, as global temperature has increased 0.6 degree Celsius during the last century, he said, adding that mean sea level has also risen by 0.19 meter and will continue to rise during the 21st century. Talking about the Green House Gas emissions, he said that Pakistan's share in the GHG emissions is less than 0.8 percent and the country also remains to be one of the lowest per capita emitters. 'We have a minimum share in the GHG emissions but we are one of the worst victims of climate change,' convenor of the committee Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed remarked."

"In the high-stakes conflict over U.S. climate-change policy, groups that deny or cast doubt on global warming brought in $7.2 billion from 2003 through 2010 - less than a third of it publicly traceable to the donors.

In a recently released study of 91 such organizations, a Drexel University professor found that $5.2 billion of their funding was "dark money" from undisclosed sources. Also of unknown origin: $78 million channeled by major benefactors through a special nonprofit that then redirected the money while keeping the givers' identities private.

"Powerful funders are supporting the campaign to deny scientific findings about global warming," reported Robert J. Brulle, an environmental sociologist who studies strategies and funding patterns of what he terms the "climate change countermovement.'

Characterizing the 'real issue' as 'one of democracy,' he added, 'At the very least, American voters deserve to know who is behind these efforts.'"

The numbers are unmistakable, scientists say. Global sea levels are rising, while land along the East Coast is sinking. Just ask Norfolk, Va.

"The little white shack at the water’s edge in Lower Manhattan is unobtrusive — so much so that the tourists strolling the promenade at Battery Park the other day did not give it a second glance.

Up close, though, the roof of the shed behind a Coast Guard building bristled with antennas and other gear. Though not much bigger than a closet, this facility is helping scientists confront one of the great environmental mysteries of the age.

The equipment inside is linked to probes in the water that keep track of the ebb and flow of the tides in New York Harbor, its readings beamed up to a satellite every six minutes.

While the gear today is of the latest type, some kind of tide gauge has been operating at the Battery since the 1850s, by a government office originally founded by Thomas Jefferson. That long data record has become invaluable to scientists grappling with this question: How much has the ocean already risen, and how much more will it go up?

Scientists have spent decades examining all the factors that can influence the rise of the seas, and their research is finally leading to answers. And the more the scientists learn, the more they perceive an enormous risk for the United States."