Abnormal heat waves, floods will continue due to global warming – experts

(Interfax – April 1, 2014) Contrary to widespread belief, global warming is continuing, with Russia hit the hardest, the UN Panel on Climate Change said in a report.

The 1,500-page report, prepared by more than 250 experts, was published on Monday and will be submitted to governments, which members of the Russian group of experts said at a press conference in Moscow.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that the ocean is rising at a pace of 3 millimeters a year, glaciers keep melting and the share of greenhouse gas – carbon dioxide – is increasing in the earth atmosphere.

“The world’s leading climate monitoring centers have acknowledged over the past decades that temperatures have not demonstrated any sharp rise. But this does not mean that the global warming has come to a halt, or taken some new direction,” said Sergei Gulev, chief of a laboratory at the Shirshov Institute of Ocean Studies.

The oceans rise by 3 millimeters a year. It is “a great challenge to mankind and to the littoral economies,” he said.

Igor Mokhov, director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and Olga Solomina, deputy director of the Russian Academy Sciences’ Institute of Geography, said climate change directly impacts Russia.

An expert in the cryosphere, Solomina spoke about shrinking Arctic ice which influences the climate in the Northern hemisphere.

Mokhov, in turn, links the 2010 drought and Amur River flooding last year to global climate change.

“The 2010 drought, fires and Amur River flooding are connected with the blocking of anticyclones. Anticyclones are the cause of abnormal frosts. In expert estimates, abnormal frosts could become longer-lasting,” the expert said.

The Panel on Climate Change was formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and by the UN Environmental Program.