The IPPC’s latest report on global warming gives the world a glimpse of “the bleakest warning yet.”
Following another record-breaking year in extreme weather events, global temperature rises and climate change refugees, The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) published a new report last Monday warning of the “irreversible” impacts of global warming.
According to the IPCC’s latest assessment based on 34,000 studies, the consequences of climate breakdown will be greater than predicted, with the world having only a slim chance left of avoiding the most severe impacts. António Guterres, the UN secretary general, claimed that the “IPCC report is an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.”
Some of the main points presented in the landmark report include:
All regions are affected by global warming, with millions of people facing food and water shortages.
The Red Cross has warned that at least 1.7 billion people already face grave consequences of climate change and found that, before the Covid-19 pandemic, 2 million people a week were in need of humanitarian assistance due to said impacts.
Between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people (about half of the current global population) live in areas that are highly vulnerable to climate change.
There is more displacement from climate change than from conflict.
Mass die-offs of species (be it trees or corals) are imminent.
Allowing global temperatures to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, which is most likely, would result in “irreversible” impacts.
Coastal areas and low-lying islands face the looming threat of flooding at temperature rises of more than 1.5C.
Some countries have agreed to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land, but conserving half may be necessary to allow natural ecosystems to cope with the damage caused.
The report stressed the importance of humanity’s adaptation to climate change. “Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of the IPPC.
However, the IPPC gives a message of hope: “Near-term actions that limit global warming to close to 1.5C would substantially reduce projected losses and damages related to climate change in human systems and ecosystems, but cannot eliminate them all.”
With the end of the century being less than a lifetime away, it is clear that the future is in the decisions that are made today. The report concludes that “actions taken now will have a profound effect on the quality of our children’s lives.” The well-being not only of humans, but of all species on Earth, is in our hands.
By Anna Alandete
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