Doha And No End?

This year winter is incumen in Freiburg early. The climate experts are back from the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2012 in Doha, Katar, disappointed and warning, but who shivering with cold, will believe in their global warning of global warming?

Mean temperatures in ^oC at Ebringen near Freiburg from 1983 to 2011 and trendline

Yet we experience the cumulative occurrence of heavy local rainfall followed by inundations and extended periods of extreme droughts around the globe. Perpetual ice layers are no longer permanent, and their melting is raising the water level of the oceans at an alarming rate.

In Freiburg, too, trends are visible where yearly precipitation increases due to heavy rainfalls. They are caused by more water being evaporated due to the higher temperatures in the atmosphere forming "heavier" clouds.

Yearly precipitation in liters per m² at Ebringen from 1986 to 2011 and trendline

Experts keep telling us that CO₂ emissions are the culprit of the greenhouse effect. The following graphic gives names and numbers in 2010.

Graphic presentation Badische Zeitung

Absolute figures in millions of tons of carbon dioxide emitted are on the left-hand side, whereas the figures of merit, i.e., the discharges per capita, are on the right. I am beginning to understand why the UN convened the Climate Change Conference in Doha's capital Katar. The winner with 38 tons simply took it all. This puts into perspective the position of the US with 17 tons per capita. With 9.9 tons of CO₂ per capita, Germany does not figure on the graphic, but what the heck is so particular about tiny Luxemburg? Why did the EU not rap on their knuckles?

Trinidad and Tobago even are worse examples. With daily temperatures around 30 ^oC, they use much air conditioning. Unlike most of the other Caribbean islands, both Trinidad and Tobago have frequently escaped the wrath of major devastating hurricanes, including Hurricane Ivan, the most powerful storm to pass close to the islands in recent history, in September 2004 (Wikipedia). So how will the people react when one day they will experience a complete discharge of the usually laden atmosphere in the Caribbean?

Some delegates at the Doha conference implored what is known as The Common Vision of a maximum carbon dioxide emission reached in 2015. In the following years, emissions should and must decrease; otherwise, the target figure limiting the global temperature rise to 2 ^oC in this century will be missed.

Katar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, and the United Arab Emirates said they will soon announce measures protecting the climate. However, they added that this contradicts national goals, given their dependence on oil and gas production. Eventually, only the Dominican Republic, Libanon, and Monaco presented target figures for limiting their CO₂ emissions, while other countries still need to move. However, in the end, the fed-up chairman Abdullah bin Hamad All-Attiya swung down his gavel, closing the conference's final session, thus forcing the participants into prolonging the Kyoto Protocol.

Germany's environmental minister Peter Altmaier (the well-built guy)
in discussion with chairman Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiya (dpa)

It seems that all countries are waiting for the 5^th Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due in 2013 or 2014, hoping scientists will have found out that the nightmare of global warming has somehow disappeared.

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