20160720_BB

Source: BBC News (BBC1 6 PM)

URL: N/A

Date: 20/07/2016

Event: "... we're scarily close to dangerous levels of climate change"

Credit: BBC News

People:

• Fiona Bruce: British newsreader and journalist
• David Shukman: Science Editor, BBC News
• Dr. Laura Wilcox: Senior Research Fellow, University of Reading

Fiona Bruce: Last month was the hottest June around the world in modern history, marking the 14th month in a row that global temperature records have been broken. Climate experts say it reveals we are now close to dangerous levels of climate change, as our Science Editor David Shukman explains.

[Amateur video footage of lightning in Scotland.]

David Shukman: Spectacular lightning in Scotland. This marked the end of our very brief heatwave. And this comes as scientists report that the world as a whole is seeing a record rise in temperatures, producing a wide range of impacts. In California, firefighters are struggling with blazes pushing into the Hollywood Hills - this was the scene yesterday. [Footage of smoke in Hollywood.] A heat wave has hit much of continental Europe this week - this boy in Spain tries to stay cool. [Footage of a small boy lying face-down in a puddle.] And many tropical coral reefs have turned white - what's called bleaching - as the waters get too warm for them. [Footage of coral.]

So what do the latest figures about rising temperatures tell us about a planet that's getting hotter? Well, this graph from the American Weather Agency shows the period January to June every year from the 1880s - below average in the first half of the century but then climbing pretty dramatically, later. [Shows hockey stick-like graph, with temperature increase coloured a dramatic red.] And in the last six months, it was more than a degree above the long-term average. If we take a closer look, you can see why scientists are surprised at the scale of the increase. Now, they say this is partly driven by the weather pattern El Nino, with warm water in the eastern Pacific, but also by the greenhouse gases from our pollution, which the Paris Agreement on Climate Change is meant to slow down.

Scientists researching the climate say they've been warning for years that unless those greenhouse gases are cut, then temperatures will continue to rise, and the impacts are likely to become more severe.

Laura Wilcox: I think we're scarily close to dangerous levels of climate change. We have a Paris Agreement now that says we shouldn't be exceeding 1 and a half degrees Centigrade of climate change, but unless we start removing emissions from the atmosphere in the next decade or so, that's a threshold we're going to exceed.

David Shukman: The fear is of more scenes like this - extreme weather in West Virginia last month, which made this town look like a war zone. [Footage of flooding.] Rivers reached record levels. Scientists say a warmer world is set to see more violent rainfall, and this year is on course to be the hottest on record. David Shukman, BBC News.