U.N. Report Shows 'Human Influence' on Climate Change

Mar 24, 2014 10:30 AM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

People are responsible for a warming climate and extreme weather in recent years, according to a new U.N. report.

Thirteen of the 14 hottest years have occurred in this century, last year going down as the sixth-warmest on record, The Associated Press reported.

In its yearly climate report, the World Meteorological Organization said that 2013 was the warmest year in Australia ever recorded, furthering an alarming trend of global warming.

"Many of the extreme events of 2013 were consistent with what we would expect as a result of human-induced climate change," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, as reported by the AP and other media.

One example is Typhoon Haiyan, which killed around 6,100 people and caused $13 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam in November.

Jarraud recently spoke in Geneva and detailed special studies of climate change related to extreme heat in Australia. The hot temperatures of 2013 couldn't be replicated in a model without factoring in the human effect--burning coal, oil and gas fills the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, which holds in heat.

"It is not possible to reproduce these heat waves in the models if you don't take into account human influence," said Jarraud, as quoted by the AP.

As further evidence, Jarraud listed other extreme weather events, including the $22 billion worth of damage from flooding in central Europe in June, $10 billion in damage from Typhoon Fitow in China and Japan, and a drought in China that cost $10 billion.

The U.N.'s climate science panel will publish the second installment of its five-part report on climate change next week, The Guardian reported.

2001-2010 was the warmest decade on record, according to the WMO study. 

"2013 with its mixture of record warmth and extreme weather shows a now familiar mixture of natural variability and greenhouse gas induced climate change," Brian Hoskins, director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change at Imperial College London, told The Guardian.

"These annual statements document a striking long term trend, and one thing is clear: that our continuing greenhouse gas emissions are a crucial driving force in the changing climate."

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