Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If you’re too busy to dive into the complex topics surrounding climate change, under discussion in Geneva 31 August to 4 September during the third World Climate Conference in 30 years, consider these facts:

• Carbon sinking: any natural store of carbon that can absorb CO₂ from the air, such as forests, grasslands and oceans. (WWF jargon buster  & acronyms, climate change)
• Zebra mussels, tiny freshwater mollusks, invaded US waterways in the early 1980s, imported from Russia, and they now post water management problems in many areas, complicating existing problems due to changes in water levels and quality. (Boston.com and Trout Unlimited)
• Globally, 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred since 1990 (records began in 1861)(Cambridgeshire CC, UK)
• Three-quarters of air traffic delays in high density regions are related to weather and 43% of aircraft accidents occur during operations in adverse weather. (WMO; related, on downed Air France flight 447: GenevaLunch)
• As of 2009 the proportion of people living in urban settings is more than 50 percent of the world’s population. Forty percent of the world’s population lives within 100 km of a coastline and within 50 metres of sea level. (WCC-3 working sessions).
• Thick sea ice has declined by 1.5 million km2, the surface area of Alaska, in the four years between 2004 and 2008. This is a decline of 42 percent. WWF International Arctic Project
• Methane is a greenhouse gas which is 25 times better at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Most of the methane in the world is stored in methane hydrates, in the Arctic, and the world’s methane hydrates store more than 13 times as much carbon as is already in the atmosphere. As the Arctic warms, these deposits become more unstable. WWF International Arctic Project
• About 90 percent of the Earth’s extra heat is stored in the world’s oceans. IPCC 4th Assessment Report AR4 2007
• Cities are most vulnerable to climate change. They are close to coasts, they are close to disruptive storm systems. And it is where we have placed all of our most important resources and facilities.
• For a journey from London to Edinburgh, a passenger travelling by plane could be responsible for 96.4 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide and a car passenger 71 kilogrammes, while a train passenger would lead to just 11.9 kilogrammes and a coach user only 9.2 kilogrammes. (Cambridgeshire CC, UK)

Climate change has brought together in Geneva more than 1,500 scientific and social experts for the first three days of this week, for the third World Climate Conference in 30 years. Thursday and Friday, 3 and 4 September, ministers from over 80 countries and 20 heads of state join the conference for high-level discussions. The result is expected to be a new Global Climate Framework to guide the development of climate services that will link science-based climate predictions and information to climate-risk management and adaptation programmes.

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