It sounds a little like a joke. What brings together 14,000 scientists from 34 countries and 1,990 jurisdictions?The climate crisis is not funny, unfortunately. Experts have released a new warning about the dire state of our planet. This latest report is absolutely devastating.Researchers write that "We are close to or have already passed tipping points associated mit critical parts of the Earth System, including the West Antarctica and Greenland Ice Sheets, warm-water coral Reefs and the Amazon Rainforest.""Given these alarming developments we need quick, frequent, and easily accessed updates on the climate emergency."11.258 scientists published a report in BioScience in 2019 warning of the severe climate crisis we are facing.Two years later, the situation has not miraculously improved.Thomas Newsome, University of Sydney ecologist, said that "especially troubling" is the rise in climate-related catastrophes, such as the 2019-20 Australian megafires. He also noted that the three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, set new records for atmospheric concentrations in 2020, 2021, respectively."This was despite shifts durant the COVID-19 pandemic."BioScience published a new report that added 2,800 scientists to their growing collection. It noted that 1,990 jurisdictions had formally declared or acknowledged a climate emergency and offered a policy approach for reducing the damage we are doing to our planet's warming.Researchers suggest a three-pronged approach to near-term policy: A significantly higher global carbon price, an international phase-out and eventual banning of fossil fuels and the development of climate reserves to preserve and restore biodiversity and carbon sinks like the Amazon rainforest.Climate scientists have been warning from the rooftops since at least 1960s about the dangers posed by anthropogenic climate changes and have offered various solutions since the 1980s.Despite the fact that we know how much fossil fuels are affecting Earth's climate, mankind's greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and global warming has increased. Scientists warn that there is no time to waste.Newsome states that "We recommend an urgent need to transformatively change in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and more generally human overexploitation of this planet.""There are still opportunities to transform pandemic-related monetary support measures into climate-friendly activities. It is encouraging to see fossil fuel divestment improving in record-setting ways."There are some glimmers that there is hope, despite the fact that many of the 31 "vital signs" or benchmarks such as ocean changes, livestock numbers, and melting ice are at terrible all-time highs.Solar and wind power have increased by 57 per cent between 2018 and 2021 (but still 19 times less than the fossil fuel consumption).Between 2018 and 2021, there has been a significant increase in fossil fuel divestment. Although fossil fuel energy consumption has decreased slightly since 2019, researchers believe that this is due to the pandemic. However, it will likely go back up.This new report was created to coincide with the International Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report, due next week. It is expected that this report will be even more alarming. The IPCC reports of past years are not changing.Scientists still hope that enough political will is available to implement the policy changes necessary to save the world.BioScience has published the report.
