World Meteorological Organization tasks weather presenters to imagine reports if world fails to cut carbon emissions
By Alex Pashley
Vessels crossing an ice-free Arctic sea. Balmy temperatures fit for a music festival in Greenland.
This is a likely weather report for the polar region within 35 years if emissions continue unabated, the US’ prominent Weather Channel illustrated on Monday.
It responded to a WMO-sponsored series of global forecasts to roll almost daily before a UN climate change summit starts in Paris on 30 November.
Broadcasters from Sky News Arabia to Vietnam Television will present their local visions of a world increasingly impacted by stronger storms and volatile rainfall.
“As you have seen, climate change will increasingly affect our day to day weather but you don’t have to wait until 2050 to witness its impact,” said Michael Jarraud, head of the Geneva-based UN weather agency in the video (see above).
“Already today many parts of the world are experiencing more intense rainfall, floods, storms, heat waves, droughts. We need to minimise these negative impacts. The best way to do that is to rapidly and significantly reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.”
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2015 is set to be the hottest since records began in 1961, according to the WMO.
A strengthening El Nino weather pattern will likely see this year beat 2014’s mean temperature of 0.61C above a 1961-1990 average.
Envoys from nearly 200 countries are set to strike a global warming accord at a two-week summit in Paris.