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Global news Climate change happening ‘faster and sooner’ – report The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). An analysis of the very latest, peer-reviewed science indicates that many predictions at the upper end of the IPCC’s forecasts are becoming ever more likely. Meanwhile, the newly emerging science points to some events thought likely to occur in longer-term time horizons, as already happening or set to happen far sooner than had previously been thought. The Climate Change Science Compendium 2009, released earlier this year by the United Nations Environment Programme, point to losses from glaciers, ice-sheets and the polar regions which appear to be happening faster than anticipated. The Greenland ice sheet, for example, has recently seen melting some 60% higher than the previous record of 1998. “The report is a wake-up call. The time for hesitation is over, ” says United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

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