14 August 2007News.com.auClare Peddie
Climate change is shaping up to be worse than predicted by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a CSIRO scientist says.
CSIRO honorary fellow Barrie Pittock, speaking yesterday at the launch of the University of Adelaide's Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, said the panel's models had left out many factors.
"Climate change is happening, there's no doubt about that, it's happening faster than the models predicted it would," he said.
Dr Pittock said more extreme warming could be explained "because of changes that increase the global warming".
One example is melting of arctic sea ice which leads to greater absorption of sunlight - which in turn leads to further warming and so more melting of sea ice.
"There are quite a number of such effects which are very important and have been observed to be happening," Dr Pittock said.
These effects were not factored in to IPCC models because the science was considered uncertain.
Institute director Professor Barry Brook says an article recently published in the journal Science says that nature has been holding climate change at bay but "all hell is about to break loose" from 2009.
Dr Pittock is giving a talk today in the Botanic Gardens.
