Kids Global Climate Change Institute (KGCCI) Leaders [are] throwing their people to the wolves of energy insecurity, price volatility & climate chaos. The [Third] IPCC report lays out a saner, safer approach.... António Guterres
Psychologist Leon Festinger was reading the morning newspaper in the summer of 1954, when he stumbled upon a short article about Dorothy Martin and her apocalyptic warnings from extraterrestrials about a civilization-destroying flood approaching on December 21.
Festinger wondered what would happen on December 22, when the world hadn’t ended and no flying saucers had appeared. To find out, he and a few other scientists infiltrated the group by pretending to be believers and recording the events and the believers’ reactions.
Fascinatingly, when the prophecy failed, rather than admit they were wrong, the Seekers became more convinced they were right.
Festinger explained this apparent contradiction with his theory of cognitive dissonance. Essentially, we all have an inner need for our beliefs and behaviors to be consistent. Any inconsistency is uncomfortable and needs to be resolved. So when we’re faced with evidence that threatens a deeply-held belief, especially one that is central to our identity and worldview, rather than changing our mind, we double down.
Our emotions take over and we engage in motivated reasoning to help us justify our belief or rationalize our behavior. We use confirmation bias, and search for arguments and evidence that support the conclusion we want to believe, discounting and discarding those that don’t. These mental gymnastics ultimately help us reduce dissonance while maintaining our desired belief."
“Robert Habeck, German vice chancellor and minister for economic affairs and climate action, proposed Tuesday creating a “critical minerals club” with the U.S. during a trip to Washington where he met with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, among others. Bruno Le Maire, French minister for finance, economy and industry, also attended the meetings.”
“Mr. Habeck said at a news conference that the goal of a critical minerals club is to find concrete measures to diversify supplies of critical minerals and reduce reliance on a small number of suppliers including China.”
“The IRA’s provision for electric-vehicle tax credit includes a requirement that a certain amount of critical minerals in the vehicle’s battery come from countries that have a free-trade agreement with the U.S., a rule that irked the EU because it doesn’t have an FTA. U.S. officials have discussed negotiating a narrow critical-minerals agreement with the EU that would allow the bloc to qualify for the critical- minerals provision, according to people familiar with the matter.”
What will happen to the planet if climate change melts what's left of Arctic permafrost? Shedding light on this overlooked threat, Arctic geologist Sue Natali reveals the true danger of heating up the iciest place on the planet: the release of ancient carbon that will dramatically worsen our climate problems. In this urgent talk, she introduces a new initiative, Permafrost Pathways, and their work to measure permafrost carbon emissions, fuse Indigenous solutions with modern technologies and protect the rights of Arctic residents. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
Listen to these kids’ 🔥 rap about combating the climate crisis. » Subscribe to NowThis: http://go.nowth.is/News_Subscribe » Sign up for our newsletter KnowThis to get the biggest stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox: https://go.nowth.is/KnowThis
In US news and current events today, students from Cappabue National School in rural Ireland are serious about the climate crisis.
As part of rapper Garry McCarthy’s music workshop, the students wrote the song to raise awareness about how fellow kids can make a difference with ‘one small change.
Watch their creative and compelling music video here.
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"Climate scientists, policy experts and environmental justice advocates on Monday announced a major project to better understand the contribution of thawing permafrost to global warming and to help Arctic communities cope with its effects.
Led by the Massachusetts-based Woodwell Climate Research Center, the 6-year, $41 million project will fill in gaps in monitoring across the Arctic of greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost, currently a source of uncertainty in climate models. The project is financed by private donors, among them the billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott.
With the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and the Alaska Institute of Justice, the project will also develop policies to help mitigate the global impact of permafrost emissions and, locally in Alaska, assist Native communities that are struggling with thawing ground and problems that arise from it.
'A good part of this is science,' said Sue Natali, a permafrost researcher, director of the Arctic program at Woodwell and one of the leaders of the new project, called Permafrost Pathways. 'But really, it’s important to us to be making sure that our science is actually useful and usable where it’s needed.'
Permafrost, the frozen ground that underlies much of the Arctic and can be hundreds of feet deep, contains the remains of plants and animals accumulated over centuries. As rapid warming in the region has caused more of the topmost frozen layer to thaw, organic matter has been decomposing and emitting carbon dioxide and methane.
Permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is now in the atmosphere. But as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change noted last year as part of its Sixth Assessment Report, the size and timing of emissions from thawing permafrost are uncertain.
'That uncertainty has been a major barrier to the incorporation of permafrost emissions into global climate policy,' Dr. Natali said.
John Holdren, the White House science adviser in the Obama administration and a director of the Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center, said that better measurements, used to develop improved models, 'could help us not only put together a more complete picture of what is happening now, but would give us a better capacity to project what is likely to happen in the future.'"
"Scientists are racing to collect ice cores – along with long-frozen records they hold of climate cycles – as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets. Some say they are running out of time. And, in some cases, it’s already too late.
Late last year, German-born chemist Margit Schwikowski and a team of international scientists attempted to gather ice cores from the Grand Combin glacier, high on the Swiss-Italian border, for a United Nations-backed climate monitoring effort.
In 2018, they had scouted the site by helicopter and drilled a shallow test core. The core was in good shape, said Schwikowski: It had well-preserved atmospheric gases and chemical evidence of past climates, and ground-penetrating radar showed a deep glacier. Not all glaciers in the Alps preserve both summer and winter snowfall; if all went as planned, these cores would have been the oldest to date that did, she said.
But in the two years it took for the scientists to return with a full drilling set-up, some of the information that had been trapped in the ice had vanished. Freeze-thaw cycles had created icy layers and meltwater pools throughout the glacier, what another team member described as a water-laden sponge, rendering the core useless for basic climate science.
The sudden deterioration 'tells us exactly how sensitive these glaciers are,' said Schwikowski, head of the analytical chemistry group at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland. 'We were just two years too late.'"
“The latest IPCC report outlines how to tackle climate change, including reductions in fossil fuel use, energy efficiency, electrification, the rapid uptake of low-emission energy sources and the use of alternative energy carriers.”
The report tracks current efforts to tackle climate change – and what would be needed to limit warming to 1.5C or well-below 2C above pre-industrial temperatures. Its key conclusions include:
“-“Global net anthropogenic [greenhouse gas] GHG emissions during the decade (2010-19) were higher than any previous time in human history (high confidence).”
- Although at least 90% of global GHG emissions are covered by climate targets, only 53% are covered by “direct” climate laws.
- Following current climate pledges to 2030 would make it “impossible” to limit warming to 1.5C with “no or limited overshoot” – and “strongly increas[e] the challenge” for 2C.
- “The global economic benefit of limiting warming to 2C is reported to exceed the cost of mitigation in most of the assessed literature (medium confidence).”
- In pathways limiting warming to 1.5C with no or limited overshoot, global CO2 emissions peak “at the latest before 2025” and then fall to 48% below 2019 levels in 2030, reaching net-zero by the “early 2050s”. - Global GHGs fall 43% by 2030 and 84% by 2050. All scenarios limiting warming to 2C or below include “greatly reduced” fossil fuel use, with unabated coal being “completely” phased out by 2050.
- “The deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to counterbalance hard-to-abate residual emissions is unavoidable if net-zero CO2 or GHG emissions are to be achieved.”
- Accelerated climate action is “critical” to achieving sustainable development.”
……………………….
“In the in-depth Q&A below, Carbon Brief unpacks the key findings of the report. Please use the links to navigate between the sections.
- What is the Working Group III report?
- How have global emissions been changing?
- How do current policies and pledges compare to scenarios assessed by the IPCC?
- What would it take to limit warming to 1.5 or 2C?
- How can shifting peoples’ demand for products and services cut emissions?
- What impact can the food system and dietary choices have on emissions?
- How must global energy systems change to limit warming? How does land add to climate change and how can it help soak up CO2? - What does the report say about CO2 removal and solar geoengineering?
- What role can cities and buildings play in cutting emissions?
- What needs to happen in the transport sector to cut CO2?
- How can industry be decarbonised?
- What climate policies are being implemented and are they working? - Are the Paris Agreement and climate finance helping cut emissions? - What are the costs and benefits of efforts to cut emissions?
- How much innovation and new technology is needed to hit climate goals?
- Will meeting climate goals help or hinder sustainable development?”
Reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Secretary-General insisted that unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable.
His comments reflected the IPCC’s insistence that all countries must reduce their fossil fuel use substantially, extend access to electricity, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen.
Unless action is taken soon, some major cities will be under water, Mr. Guterres said in a video message, which also forecast “unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals”.
Horror story
The UN chief added: “This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree (Celsius, or 2.7-degrees Fahreinheit) limit” that was agreed in Paris in 2015.
Providing the scientific proof to back up that damning assessment, the IPCC report – written by hundreds of leading scientists and agreed by 195 countries - noted that greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity, have increased since 2010 “across all major sectors globally”.
He wrote that high-emitting governments and corporations, were not just turning a blind eye, "they are adding fuel to the flames by continuing to invest in climate-choking industries. Scientists warn that we are already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects."
"A report released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises. Together with the IPCC’s previous two reports on physical science and adaptation in the past year, it reveals the yawning gap between climate pledges and reality. And the reality is that we are speeding toward disastrous global warming of more than double the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, as cited in the Paris agreement of 2016.
In concrete terms, this means major cities under water, unprecedented heat waves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages, and the extinction of 1 million species of plants and animals.
So far, high-emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye; they are adding fuel to the flames by continuing to invest in climate-choking industries. Scientists warn that we are already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects.
The new IPCC report arrives in a period of extraordinary global political and economic turbulence that has further jeopardized efforts to address climate change. Energy prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting several nations to increase fossil-fuel production. In the long run, that will only make matters worse.
Leaders who claim to be protecting their people by doubling down on fossil fuels are doing the exact opposite: throwing their people to the wolves of energy insecurity, price volatility and climate chaos.
The IPCC report lays out a saner, safer approach, one that would get the world back on track by using renewable solutions that provide green jobs, energy security and greater price stability."
“This horrific war in Ukraine that sees people dying every day is the result of governments and oil giants having blindly tolerated Russian acts of violence and oppression for many years to maintain the status quo of the fossil fuel economy.”
“More than 465 organisations in 50 countries call on world governments to reject and ban the importation of Russian oil and gas, and to rapidly phase out all fossil fuels in the name of peace.”
“4th March 2022 – Hundreds of organisations from dozens of countries have expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people in a collective call on world governments to end fossil fuel production once and for all. The current crisis sees Putin weaponising oil and gas money to threaten livelihoods and fuel terror with escalating violence, underscoring the fossil fuel system’s role in driving conflict.
This war is a fight for Ukrainians’ own freedom, but more broadly, a fight for self-determination worldwide. The letter — initiated by a dozen Ukrainian climate organisations — recognises that this war is a “grave violation of human rights, international law and global peace” fueled by the oil and gas money that powers Putin’s war machine. 40% of Russia’s federal budget comes from oil and gas, which also make up 60% of Russia’s exports.
The signatories urge governments to use all nonviolent means necessary to stop Putin and his war machine, restore peace, and end this egregious murderous aggression. Governments must work together to manage transition to a clean and safe renewable energy in a way that is fast and fair.
This also means stopping all trade and ending investment in Gazprom, Rosneft, Transneft, Surgutneftegas, LukOil, Russian Coal and others, seeing a cease to all financial services for Russian energy companies operating in the coal, oil and gas sectors.”
"The resilience of the Amazon rainforest to climate and land-use change is crucial for biodiversity, regional climate and the global carbon cycle. Deforestation and climate change, via increasing dry-season length and drought frequency, may already have pushed the Amazon close to a critical threshold of rainforest dieback. Here, we quantify changes of Amazon resilience by applying established indicators (for example, measuring lag-1 autocorrelation) to remotely sensed vegetation data with a focus on vegetation optical depth (1991–2016). We find that more than three-quarters of the Amazon rainforest has been losing resilience since the early 2000s, consistent with the approach to a critical transition. Resilience is being lost faster in regions with less rainfall and in parts of the rainforest that are closer to human activity. We provide direct empirical evidence that the Amazon rainforest is losing resilience, risking dieback with profound implications for biodiversity, carbon storage and climate change at a global scale."
Main
"There is widespread concern about the resilience of the Amazon rainforest to land-use change and climate change. The Amazon is recognized as a potential tipping element in the Earth’s climate system1, is a crucible of biodiversity2 and usually acts as a large terrestrial carbon sink3,4. The net ecosystem productivity (carbon uptake flux) of the Amazon has, however, been declining over the last four decades and, during two major droughts in 2005 and 2010, the Amazon temporarily turned into a carbon source, due to increased tree mortality5,6,7. Several studies have suggested that deforestation8 and anthropogenic global warming9,10, especially in combination, could push the Amazon rainforest past critical thresholds11,12 where positive feedbacks propel abrupt and substantial further forest loss. Two types of positive feedback are particularly important. First, localized fire feedbacks amplify drought and associated forest loss by destroying trees13 and the fire regime itself may ‘tip’ from localized to ‘mega-fires’14. Second, deforestation and forest degradation, whether due to direct human intervention or droughts, reduce evapotranspiration and hence the moisture transported further westward, reducing rainfall and forest viability there15 and establishing a large-scale moisture recycling feedback. Net rainfall reduction may in turn reduce latent heating over the Amazon to the extent that it weakens the low-level circulation of the South American monsoon8. Model projections of future changes in the Amazon rainforest differ widely9,16,17,18. Early studies showed that the Amazon rainforest may exhibit strong dieback by the end of the twenty-first century9,19. Both pronounced drying in tropical South America and a weak CO2 fertilization effect18 contributed to this result, with dieback also more common under stronger greenhouse gas emission scenarios17. Other studies based on varying general circulation and vegetation model components show a wider range of results20,21. Nevertheless, the forest may be ‘committed’ to dieback despite appearing stable at the end of model runs16. This highlights the importance of measuring the changing dynamic stability of the forest alongside its mean state. Given the uncertainty in model projections, we directly analyse observational data for signs of resilience loss in the Amazon."
Boulton, C.A., Lenton, T.M. & Boers, N. Pronounced loss of Amazon rainforest resilience since the early 2000s. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01287-8
“Migrants who come to the U.S. to find work are now being hired more quickly, at higher pay and under better working conditions than at any time in recent memory. In many cases, employers and economists say, migrant workers are being paid as well as their American counterparts.”
“Mr. Reyes has raised wages and boosted benefits to retain staff, the vast majority of whom are migrants. As a Christmas bonus, he said he used to distribute free lunch certificates before the Covid-19 pandemic. Last December, he handed out cash bonuses ranging from $250 to $5,000 for “those in the kitchen who represent the soul of the restaurant.””
“‘The difference is remarkable,’” said Josué Morillo, a Honduran migrant who crossed the border into the U.S. undetected two years ago. His first job upon arriving paid about $13 an hour. He said he now makes $18 an hour assembling shelves in warehouses in Florida. He also receives more benefits, including lodging, as job assignments take him to New York, New Jersey and Kansas. “It’s a significant saving,” he said.
Migrant construction laborers in the Washington area made on average $120 a day before the pandemic. That has since risen more than 60% to about $200 a day, said Lenin Cálix, an Ecuadorean migrant who belongs to the United Workers of Washington D.C., which provides training and legal support and aims to ensure newly arrived migrants aren’t paid below market rates. Hourly pay for all U.S. construction workers has risen about 15% since late 2019, according to the Labor Department.”
EUROPE IS ON fire: For days, temperatures have skyrocketed above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), shattering records and triggering huge wildfires that have forced tens of thousands from their homes. From Portugal to Spain to Greece, the flames have spread like a contagion. In the countryside surrounding Bordeaux, France, 75 square miles have charred in the past week. Blazes are even breaking out across London, a city not exactly known for fire weather.
Wildfires are, of course, a perfectly natural phenomenon and have periodically reset ecosystems for new growth throughout history. But in modern times, thanks to humanity’s meddling with the climate and the landscape, these fires have ballooned into unnatural beasts that instead obliterate ecosystems. Fire historian Stephen Pyne has termed this the Pyrocene, an age of flames.
Over the past several years, many factors have conspired to create the massive wildfires seen in Australia and California. Climate change has created more intense heat waves and longer dry seasons, with more crisp, ready-to-burn vegetation. And human habitation is expanding from city centers into these increasingly dry wild zones. (In California, for example, folks are getting priced out of coastal regions and moving into cheaper areas in the forested eastern parts of the state.) The one constant among wildfires is that humans will find a way to start them, whether it’s a spark from a cigarette, a lawnmower, or a firework. “In the US, we have a wildland-urban fire problem—we define it as people foolishly moving into fire-prone areas,” says Pyne. But in Europe, he says, it’s the reverse: “Europe has an equally large problem, but it’s because people have moved out of areas.”
In a major address at the United Nations, Secretary-General António Guterres warns of the dangerous threat posed by climate change and points to the massive benefits that climate action will generate. He calls on leaders to take up the challenge, and expresses hope that today’s young people will usher in a new, greener future. The Secretary-General announces that he will convene a Climate Summit in September, 2019 to bring climate action to the top of the international agenda, naming respected climate leader Luis Alfonso de Alba as a new Special Envoy on the issue.
“Lighting up the TED stage, Nobel laureate Al Gore takes stock of the current state of climate progress and calls attention to institutions that have failed to honor their promises by continuing to pour money into polluting sectors. He explains how the financial interests of fossil fuel companies have blocked the policymaking process in key countries -- and calls for a global epiphany to take on the climate crisis. "Do not give up hope," Gore says. "And remember always that political will is itself a renewable resource."
Dennis Richards's insight:
We all need to listen to Al Gore’s rage in this interview. Call it what you want: Climate Crisis,Climate Emergency. We have run out of time to NOT #ActOnClimate #NecessaryButInsufficient #StopFossilFuels #HaltGHGs #ReverseGHGs #RestorePlanetaryBalance #SufficientSpeedAndScale #SaveLivesAndLivelihoods
“A new study finds that if fossil fuel emissions continue apace, the oceans could experience a mass extinction by 2300. There is still time to avoid it.”
…………….
“Under the high emissions scenario that the scientists modeled, in which pollution from the burning of fossil fuels continues to climb, warming would trigger ocean species loss by 2300 that was on par with the five mass extinctions in Earth’s past. The last of those wiped out the dinosaurs.
‘It wasn’t an ‘Aha’ moment per se,’ said Dr. Penn, a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton, recalling the first time he looked at a graph comparing those past extinctions with their grim forecast. ‘It was more of an ‘Oh my God’ moment.’
On the other hand, reining in emissions to keep within the upper limit of the Paris climate agreement would reduce ocean extinction risks by more than 70 percent, the scientists found. In that scenario, climate change would claim about 4 percent of species by the end of this century, at which point warming would stop.”
Dennis Richards's insight:
But unfortunately, to say the least, there is no evidence from the past three decades that the world has the will to address the issue with the necessary Speed and Scale to prevent it from happening.
This paper offers a unifying conceptual framework for understanding the relationship between climate change and “within-country inequalities,” referred here collectively as “social inequality.” Available evidence indicates that this relationship is characterized by a vicious cycle, whereby initial inequality causes the disadvantaged groups to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality. The paper identifies three main channels through which the inequality-aggravating effect of climate change materializes, namely (a) increase in the exposure of the disadvantaged groups to the adverse effects of climate change; (b) increase in their susceptibility to damage caused by climate change; and (c) decrease in their ability to cope and recover from the damage suffered. The paper presents evidence to illustrate each of the processes above. It also notes that the same analytical framework can be used to discuss the relationship between climate change and inequality across countries. Finally, it points to the ways in which the analysis can be helpful in making relevant policy decisions.
* This paper is based on a background paper that the authors prepared for the World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) 2016, devoted to the topic, “Building Resilience to Climate Change – An Opportunity to Reduce In- equalities.” The authors would like to thank the WESS team members for their comments. Thanks are also due to the outside experts – in particular, Julie Ann Silva – for their comments and suggestions. Special thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers who provided excellent comments that led to improvement of the paper. All remaining errors and shortcomings are of the authors. The views expressed in this paper are authors’ personal and need not be ascribed to the organizations to which they belong. Please send your comments to S. Nazrul Islam, the corresponding author, at islamn@un.org
As the human population continues to grow, so does our impact on the environment. In fact, recent research has shown that three-quarters of Earth’s land surface is under pressure from human activity. In this short film, spoken word artist Prince Ea makes a powerful case for protecting the planet and challenges the human race to create a sustainable future. Winner of the Film4Climate competition organized by the Connect4Climate Program of the World Bank (film4climate.net). ➡ Subscribe: http://bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe ➡ Get More Short Film Showcase: http://bit.ly/ShortFilmShowcase
About Short Film Showcase: The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. We look for work that affirms National Geographic's belief in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of National Geographic Partners.
About National Geographic: National Geographic is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets you closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible.
"It was once the pinnacle of humanity’s climate ambitions. A new UN-led climate report essentially concedes that it’s out of reach."
"Oliver Geden, a senior fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and one of the lead authors of the new IPCC report, agreed. 'I would say it’s plausible to talk about it. I think it’s not plausible to say that, given what we know right now, we won’t [exceed] it,' he told me.
Even though the goal remains possible, the report makes clear that enough fossil-fuel infrastructure to blow past the goal has already been built. The world can emit as much carbon dioxide as it produced during the 2010s—about 400 gigatons—before it uses up the rest of its 1.5-degree budget, the new report finds. But the world’s existing fossil-fuel infrastructure, as already built and financed, would generate another 660 to 850 gigatons of emissions. Meeting the goal will require taking coal, oil, and natural-gas capacity offline before it was designed to shut down.
The question that really matters, both Erickson and Geden said, is not technical feasibility but political will and institutional capacity. So although the new IPCC report repeatedly finds that the 1.5-degree goal is technically feasible, it also establishes that the pace of institutional change required to achieve such a technical transition would have no historical precedent."
The second part of the sixth IPCC assessment report (AR6) has just come out, and it contains some scary details about the scale of the impacts that are already being felt because of climate change.
The bad news is that they're going to get worse unless we do something about it.
The good news is that we still have time to do something.
And you can always support me on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/Dr_Gilbz. Subscriptions help me make more (& better!) video content about climate and polar science, and keep these videos independent.
“Deadly with extreme weather now, climate change is about to get so much worse. It is likely going to make the world sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an ‘unavoidable’ increase in risks, a new United Nations science report says.”
And after that watch out.
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said Monday if human-caused global warming isn’t limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways with some being ‘potentially irreversible.’
‘The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,’ says the major report designed to guide world leaders in their efforts to curb climate change. Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming’s impacts, it warns, ‘will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.’
Today’s children who may still be alive in the year 2100 are going to experience four times more climate extremes than they do now even with only a few more tenths of a degree of warming over today’s heat. But if temperatures increase nearly 2 more degrees Celsius from now (3.4 degrees Fahrenheit) they would feel five times the floods, storms, drought and heat waves, according to the collection of scientists at the IPCC.”
"Viewed from space, the Amazon rainforest doesn’t look like an ecosystem on the brink. Clouds still coalesce from the breath of some 390 billion trees. Rivers snake their way through what appears to be a sea of endless green.
Yet satellite images taken over the past several decades reveal that more than 75 percent of the rainforest is losing resilience, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. The vegetation is drier and takes longer to regenerate after a disturbance. Even the most densely forested tracts struggle to bounce back.
This widespread weakness offers an early warning sign that the Amazon is nearing its “tipping point,” the study’s authors say. Amid rising temperatures and other human pressures, the ecosystem could suffer sudden and irreversible dieback. More than half of the rainforest could be converted into savanna in a matter of decades — a transition that would imperil biodiversity, shift regional weather patterns and dramatically accelerate climate change.
Historically, the Amazon has been one of Earth’s most important “carbon sinks,” pulling billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air and storing it in vegetation. Researchers fear that this carbon’s sudden release would put humanity’s most ambitious climate goal — limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) — out of reach.
'As a scientist, I am not supposed to have anxiety. But after reading this paper, I am very, very anxious,' said Carlos Nobre, a climate scientist at the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Advanced Studies, who was not involved in the new research. 'This paper shows we are moving in the completely wrong direction … If we exceed the tipping point, that’s very bad news.'
The Amazon is one of several 'tipping elements' in the global climate, scientists say. Rather than steadily worsening as the planet warms, these systems have the potential to abruptly switch from one phase to another — possibly with very little warning."
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