Climate+Change


 * Climate Change is hazardous to your health ||
 * Smoking ||
 * Asbestos ||
 * DDT ||
 * Climate Change ||
 * Evaluating timelines ||
 * Current attitudes towards climate change ||
 * Progressing attitudes towards climate change ||
 * References ||

**Health risk example 4 **

Climate change, also known as anthropogenic global warming (AGW), refers to significant and sustained statistical deviations in the distribution and patterns of weather around our planet, due to dramatic increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere which trap heat. Natural processes such as plate tectonics, solar radiation and oceanic circulation naturally vary Earth’s climate over time. However, it is now widely accepted that most of the warming observed over the past 200 years and proceeding at an unprecedented rate, is due to human production of greenhouse gas emissions. 33,34,35.

This growing imbalance poses significant risk to a number of key earth systems through phenomena such as increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, atmospheric and ocean circulation which influences rainfall and wind patterns, shrinking ice sheets and sea ice leading to rising sea levels, increases in severity and duration of extreme weather events (bushfires, flooding, drought), ocean acidification and biodiversity loss. 36.

In 2007, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released their Fourth Assessment Report. One of the most scrutinised and commented on documents in the history of science, it stated unequivocally that the Earth’s climate system is warming and that human activity is triggering the climate changes we are witnessing. Further, it emphasised that if we do not take action to reduce emissions, the risks of future climate change to our environment, economy and society, are serious. 37.

In 2011, the Australian Government released the Garnaut Report. It found that the 2007 IPCC Report most likely underestimated the effects of climate change.



Mean global temperature is 13.98 degrees celcius. 42. || Scientist James Lovelock proposes Gaia Hypothesis - that Earth’s biological and physical systems are all interconnected. US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is founded - a leading funder of climate research.
 * CLIMATE CHANGE TIMELINE **36,38,39,40.
 * **Year ** || **Events ** ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1CE-1850 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Climate proxies show temperatures were relatively stable for one or two thousand years before industrial revolution. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">41. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1750-1850 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">First Industrial Revolution begins. Coal, railroads, and land clearing boost greenhouse gas emissions. Improved agriculture and sanitation increase population growth. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1800 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Level of carbon dioxide gas (Co2) in the atmosphere, as later measured in ancient ice, about 290 ppm (parts per million). ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1824 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Joseph Fourier, the mathematician and physicist generally credited with discovering the greenhouse effect, calculates the Earth would be much colder without an atmosphere. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1850 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Mean global temperature is approx 13.6°C. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1859 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Physicist JohnTyndall discovers some gases block infrared radiation and suggests changes in the concentration of gases could bring about climate change. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1870-1910 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Second Industrial revolution begins with introduction of steam-powered ships, railways, internal combustion engines, fertilisers and other chemicals and electrical power generation - all stimulating further growth. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1896 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius publishes first calculation of global warming from human emissions of Co2, calculating that cutting Co2 in half would be enough to produce an ice age and that a doubling of atmospheric Co2 would give a total warming of 5-6 degrees celsius. However, such calculations were disputed with other theories including volcanism and solar variation put forward. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1914-1918 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">First World War. Governments mobilise and control industry. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1920-1925 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Texas and Persian Gulf oil drilling commences - the world taps into cheap energy. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1930s || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">A global warming trend since 19th century is reported. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1938 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Inventor and steam engineer Guy Stewart Callendar publishes many major scientific articles and argues that greenhouse global warming is happening - this revives interest in the topic but scientific opinion largely disputes or ignores his theory. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1939-1945 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">World War II - driven largely by a struggle to control oil fields. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1945 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">US Office of Naval Research funds many projects - some helpful in understanding climate change. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1950 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Levels of atmospheric Co2 rise to their highest in 650,000 years ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1956 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Norman Phillips produces a fairly realistic computer model of the world’s atmosphere. Canadian physicist Gilbert Plass calculates that adding Co2 to the atmosphere will significantly affect the world’s radiation balance. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1957 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">As the Soviets launching Sputnik, panicked investment into geophysics helps fund and co-ordinate climate research. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1960 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The Keeling Curve - Dave Keeling accurately measures Co2 in atmosphere, noting a rise to 315ppm, in one of the best known graphs in the climate change debate. Sourced at the Mauna Loa Station in Hawaii and installed by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the program has measured Co2 levels ever since, clearly indicating a clear rise in levels over the last half century <span style="color: #ff6600; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1962 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Rachel Carson releases her book ‘ //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Silent Spring’ //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> about the potential effects of pesticides on our environment. Leads to founding of Environmental Protection Agency. Both lauded and severely criticised, Carson’s book is widely considered to have launched the environmental movement. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1965 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In a US meeting on causes of climate change, mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz (who coined the term ‘butterfly effect’) points out the chaotic nature of the climate system and the possibility of sudden shifts. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1967 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Climatologist Syukuro Manabe and Research meteorologist Richard Wetherald provide compelling calculation that doubling world CO2 levels would increase global temperatures by a couple of degrees. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1968 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Studies suggest potential for collapse of Antarctic ice sheets - and catastrophic sea level rise. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1970 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">First Earth Day. Environmental movement gains traction as concern about global degradation grows.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> Aerosol activity increases - alongside a claim it counteracts global warming and could lead to significant cooling. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Human population reaches 3.6 billion - almost doubling in 40 years. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">43. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Deep sea cores emphasise role of climate feedback. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Deforestation and other changes to ecosystems are recognised as vital to climate. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">US National Academies report finds it highly credible that doubling Co2 levels will lead to global warming of between 1.5 - 4.5 degrees celcius. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Strong global warning reported since mid 70’s as 1981 declared warmest year on record. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">At the Villach Conference in Austria, a group of international scientists reach a new set of political and policy conclusions and consensus emphasising the urgent need for action on climate change. This event is often cited as a transition point where climate change moved onto the international policy agenda. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Antarctic ice cores show Co2 and temperature rose and fell in line through past ice ages, indicating powerful biological and geochemical feedbacks. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Human population reaches 5 billion. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">43. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Ice-core and biology studies confirm living ecosystems give climate feedback by way of methane, which could accelerate global warming. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Media reporting record heat and drought, boosts global warming coverage. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Toronto Conference calls for strict control of greenhouse gas emissions - UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher first major leader to encourage action. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Montreal Protocol brought into force - phasing out use of CFCs due to ozone damage. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Global warming sceptics claim 20th century temperature changes followed solar influences (theory collapses the following decade). || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Ancient climates study indicates climate sensitivity in same range as predicted by computer models. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Reports of the breaking up of Antarctic ice shelves and other signs of current warming in polar regions begin to influence public opinion. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Toyota releases Prius - first commercially successful hybrid electric car. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Co2 levels reach 368.5 ppm (Mauna Loa Observatory). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen coins term ‘anthropocene’ - a new geological era marking human behavioural influences on earth systems. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Stern Review asserts climate change would most likely reduce GDP and consumption as well as global economic output - and that mitigation to stablise levels in 20 years would cost approximately 1% of global GDP. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">46. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">In an open letter to the UN, 94 international scientists, mathematicians, economists and independent reviewers state the IPCC should focus more on climate change adaptation for the world’s most vulnerable, rather than mitigation. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Controversial documentary ‘The Great Global Warming Swindle’ argues reportedly for ‘scientific sceptics’ that anthropogenic climate change is no more than a multi-billion dollar industry. A lengthy British enquiry finds the film misrepresented several leading climate scientists and the IPCC. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Shipping companies rejoice as North East and North West Arctic Ocean passages open up due to unprecedented sea ice melt. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Experts warn global warming far more rapid than thought just a few years ago. Level of Co2 in atmosphere reaches 385.5ppm. Mean global temperature reaches 14.5 degrees celcius - the warmest in hundreds, maybe thousands of years. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Frustration at UN climate talks in Barcelona as developing nations argue developed nations should bear greater economic burden and responsibility for climate change - the latter don’t agree. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Royal Society Paper on Geoengineering outlines possible solutions if mitigation fails, such as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and Solar Radiation Management (SRM) technology. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">COP15 - The Copenhagen UN Framework Convention on Climate Change seen by some as a turning point in common acceptance of climate change - and by others as frustrating, when commitments fall short of expectations. || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Berkley Earth Project report concludes average land temperature over past 250 years has risen by 1.5 degree celcius. Project is partly funded by organisations that oppose action on climate change and is headed by a former sceptic - now ‘convert’ Professor Richard Muller. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">50. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">On a scale unprecedented in modern history, Hurricane Sandy (aka Frankenstorm) hits the east coast of the US and Canada in late October, killing more than 150 people, inflicting significant destruction and wreaking billions of dollars in damage. It contained the most kinetic energy of any storm on record. Immediately media asks if the event can be linked to climate change. One climate commentator assesses that //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">human caused climate change can be said to have amplified the impacts //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">51,52. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1971 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">SMIC Conference of leading scientists reports danger of rapid and serious anthropogenic climate change and calls for an organised research effort. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1972 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">UN Environment Programme established - to coordinate global environmental activities and encourage sustainable development. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1974 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Serious drought since 1972 raises concerns about climate. Cooling from aerosols suspected to be as likely as warming. Media talks of new ice age. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1976 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Studies show CFCs (1974) along with methane and ozone (1976) can significantly contribute to greenhouse effect.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1977 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Scientists begin to unite on view that global warming will be the biggest climate risk of next century. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1978 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">National Climate Program Act attempts to co-ordinate US climate research along with temporary funding increases - seen by man as inadequate. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1979 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Second oil ‘energy crisis’ fuels environmental movement call for renewable energy sources and inhibits nuclear growth.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1980 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Mean average global temperature reaches 14.16 degrees celcius. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1981 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Election of Reagan brings backlash against environmental movement to power. Political conservatism is linked to scepticism about global warming. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1982 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Greenland ice cores reveal significant oscillation in temperature over 100 year timeframes in distant past.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1983 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Reports from US National Academy of Science and EPA stir conflict. Greenhouse warming becomes a key issue in politics. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1985 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Ramanthan and collaborators warn global warming may come twice as fast as first predicted, due to rise in methane and other trace greenhouse gases.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1987 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Montreal Protocol imposes international restrictions on emission of CFC’s and other ozone-destroying gases.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1988 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established by World Meteorological Organisation (WMO and UNEP to impartially evaluate scientific evidence for climate change.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1989 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Fossil fuel and other US industries (Ford, Exxon, Texaco, DaimlerChrysler) form Global Climate Coalition. Their agenda is to take adversarial position on climate change, telling public and politicians that the science is too uncertain to justify action. With the IPCC report of 2001, the Coalition was, in its own words, ‘deactivated’. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">44.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1990 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">First IPCC report states world has been warming and this is likely to continue. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1991 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Mt Pinatubo errupts. James Hansen correctly predicts cooling pattern.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1992 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">UN Framework Convention on Climate Change produced at Rio de Janeiro conference - USA blocks calls for serious action.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1995 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Second IPCC report detects human-caused warming. Warns serious warming likely in coming century.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1997 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Kyoto Protocol sets targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if enough nations sign on. US and Australia among those who refuse to ratify. (Australia eventually did ratify in 2007. The US still has not.)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1998 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">El Nino phenomenon particularly severe, with most extensive coral bleaching (caused by increased ocean temperature) on record. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">1999 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Human population reaches 6 billion <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">43. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2000 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Mean average global temperature 14.53 degrees celcius.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2001 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">IPCC Third Assessment Report confirms global temperatures have risen 0.6 degrees celcius over past century and points to evidence of ‘human fingerprint’ on this number. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2004 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The US Department of Commerce blocks publication of a news release about an article on global warming written by NOAA research meteorologist Richard Wetherald. No reason is provided. This is the third time the DOC has rejected a news release written about an article by Wetherald. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">45. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2006 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Al Gore releases //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">An Inconvenient Truth //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> documentary, attempting to educate non-scientifically informed people about the dangers of global warming.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2007 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Fourth IPCC report warns serious effects are now evident and cost of reducing emissions will be far less than the damage they cause.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2008 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">The Garnaut Climate Change Review reports on potential economic impacts of climate change for Australia to mixed reception.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2009 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Beginning with the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">hacking <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> of a server at the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">Climatic Research Unit <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> (CRU) at the <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">University of East Anglia <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> (UEA), an external attacker copies thousands of emails and computer files to various locations on the Internet. In what becomes known as “Climategate,” (later seen as an attempt to divert attention from the Copenhagen COP15 Summit), stolen emails are used by climate change sceptics as ‘evidence that man-made climate change does not exist’. Emails <span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%; text-decoration: none;">do not <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;"> in fact show this - eight subsequent investigations find no evidence of fraud or misconduct. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">47.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2011 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Australian DSE releases report ‘State of the Environment 2011 - Antarctic Environment’ with key findings determining that East Antarctic Ice sheet has lost about 60 billion tonnes of ice annually since 2006, and that this may contribute significantly to sea level rise in the future. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">48. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">2012 || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 130%;">Arctic sea ice, another key indicator of climate change, melted to its lowest level on record this year before beginning its autumnal freeze, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; vertical-align: super;">49.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">SUMMARY OF CLIMATE CHANGE TIMELINE **