The IPCC report is out and somehow it’s even more dire than my climate-anxiety ridden brain was expecting, with the UN issuing a code red and saying the planet is expected to warm 1.5 degrees above preindustrial conditions by 2040.
The latest report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been in the making for eight years, combining the work of hundreds of experts and peer-review studies. It represents the whole world’s entire knowledge of climate change, and the conclusion the report has drawn is damning.
The IPCC has reported that human activity was “unequivocally” the cause of extreme changes to the climate, including heatwaves, floods, droughts, melting polar ice/glaciers, and of course rising sea levels.
In 2019, carbon dioxide concentrations were higher than literally at any time in the last two million years, and warming is happening more rapidly than in the last two millennia, according to the report.
Things that you do when climate change is an emergency:
– End fossil fuel subsidies and donations
– Shut down coal power by 2030
– Immediately ban all fossil fuel exploration
– Plan to wind down coal/gas mining ASAP
– Ban combustion engine sales by at least 2035 #IPCC https://t.co/7s53hH6FNg— Ketan Joshi (@KetanJ0) August 9, 2021
The report calls for immediate action as the only way to avoid even worse impacts of climate change, saying that extreme weather events like wildfires in California, floods in China and heatwaves of Canada are only the beginning. Unless we take action in shifting the global economy and lowering our carbon footprints, shit is just going to get worse.
Hearing so many comments from around the world expressing total mystification & disgust at why the @ScottMorrisonMP government doesn’t act, given the fires, the bleaching of the Reef… and Australia’s massive renewable energy resources.#auspol #climateaction #IPCC
— David Ritter (@David_Ritter) August 9, 2021
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said the action we already know what action to take — abolishing the fossil fuel industry.
“This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as the report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses,” he said.
“[This report] is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
It doesn’t tell us what to do. It is up to us to be brave and take decisions based on the scientific evidence provided in these reports. We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis. 2/2
— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 9, 2021
The IPCC report will be central to climate negotiations that are going to be held in Glasgow in November called COP26, where each nation is asked to come with new plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level that will actually limit global warming to less than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – something that the IPCC report says is still possible, but only just.
