Climate Science: Major New Discoveries
Summary of Climate Science: 2008
This annual WRI review highlights the latest major research and innovations in climate change science and technology. It presents a timely synthesis of current understanding of global warming at a critically important time for the United States and the world. The international community is negotiating a new global agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases for the period post-2012, while the U.S. Congress is drafting landmark climate and energy legislation to reduce domestic emissions. Our review of select peer reviewed 2008 science and technology publications, including those from key general scientific journals and technical journals, aims to inform policymakers and legislators, the NGO community, and the media, by:describing the wide-ranging potential ramifications of human-induced climate change; documenting the impacts that are already occurring as a result of increased global temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, sea level rise, and other changes in physical and hydrological systems; and identifying important advances relating to technologies that could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future.