Climate change is already altering the planet and the world will see catastrophic and unavoidable impacts over the coming decades according to a wide-reaching report released Monday. The warming we have already seen has pushed many of the planet's ecosystems toward points that are hard to adapt to. I have seen many scientific reports in my time, but nothing like this one, said the UN secretary general. Thanks to our addiction to fossil fuels, the world has warmed by 1.09 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The report finds that some of the things we are already seeing with our current levels of warming. One of the lead authors of the report said that adverse impacts were more widespread and more negative than expected. The goal of keeping warming under 2 degrees Celsius was set by the Paris Agreement. The world is on track to meet the 1.5 degree target, which will bring with it an enormous amount of change. Even if humans can still turn the tide and bring warming back down, even overshooting these targets by just a little will bringirreversible impacts to the world. 65 million people would experience extreme heatwaves each year if the 1.5 and 2 degree targets were used.
This report has opened up a whole new realm of understanding what the impacts of overshoot might be.
This more than 2,000-page report was written by 270 scientists who reviewed tens of thousands of separate studies, and came on the heels of another report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Both are comprehensive overviews of the science surrounding climate change. Last summer's report dealt with the physics of climate change and how warming is altering the world and increasing the risks of fires, storms and floods. The Empire Strikes Back is the next part of a scientific series about how serious the planetary situation is.
There are a lot of terrible examples of what is happening and what is projected to happen as the planet keeps warming. Half of the world's living organisms are moving their habitat because of climate change. Half of the world's population faces water scarcity at some point in the year. 8% of the world's farmland would be rendered useless if the target is reached, which is increasingly likely under current trajectory. Up to 9 million additional people could die from climate-related illness by the end of the century if a worse-case scenario is adopted.
The last set of reports like this was released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Since then, the science behind climate change has made leaps and bounds, meaning that we now know a lot more about how climate change is tied to these impacts than we did the last time it was released. Next time a comprehensive review will come out, it will be in the next five to seven years. It may be too late to influence policy the next time a report like this is released because we are on a tight schedule.
There is still a chance of preventing the worst impacts. Climate change is going to be especially important in the coming decades, and leaders need to be aware that things are going to only get worse for vulnerable populations.
If regions are not prepared, people die that don't need to, according to one of the lead authors of the report. It is critically important to start looking at these increases in extreme weather and climate events, looking at the people in harm, mostly the poor and the marginalized, and making sure that efforts are undertaken to protect and promote health and wellbeing in those communities. If we don't, you can see what the risks look like in the future.
Throwing our all at reversing our fossil fuel use will be crucial.
Ebi said that there isn't a silver bullet that will solve our greenhouse gas emissions.
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