We still have time to act
Many people have given up on taking climate action, claiming that we have done too much damage and that any action we take now won’t save us from catastrophic climate and ecological breakdown. Luckily, climate scientists report that we still have time to act in order to maintain a habitable Earth, although they warn that our window of time to stop burning fossil fuels and protect carbon sinks, before global heating spirals outside of humanity’s control, is quickly closing.
Our biggest obstacle is demanding political action that’s in line with climate science. The governments speed on climate action has been too slow. Many politicians continue to live in denial about the climate emergency or receive lobbying money from the fossil fuel industry that dissuades them from taking appropriate action.
Read a roundup of the headlines below:
“Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries. There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it, but that lag is less than a decade.
Without major action to reduce emissions, global temperature is on track to rise by 2.5 °C to 4.5 °C (4.5 °F to 8 °F) by 2100, according to the latest estimates.
But it may not be too late to avoid or limit some of the worst effects of climate change. Responding to climate change will involve a two-tier approach:
“Mitigation” – reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
“Adaptation” – learning to live with, and adapt to, the climate change that has already been set in motion. The key question is, what will our emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants be in the years to come?“
NASA, Is it too late to prevent climate change?
“For years, climate scientists have been saying that time is increasingly of the essence if the world is to stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis. But they have repeated it once again in the third and final installment of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was released on Monday. The technology to do so is on hand, they emphasized, if governments can commit to the needed changes in policy.”
Scientific American, Climate Report Offers Some Hope, but the Need for Action Is Urgent
“A major new scientific report offers a road map for how countries can limit global warming, but warns that the margin for error is vanishingly small.”
NY Times, Stopping Climate Change Is Doable, but Time Is Short, U.N. Panel Warns
“Climate change is the defining crisis of our time and it is happening even more quickly than we feared. But we are far from powerless in the face of this global threat. As Secretary-General António Guterres pointed out in September, “the climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win”.
No corner of the globe is immune from the devastating consequences of climate change. Rising temperatures are fueling environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption, conflict, and terrorism. Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning. It is clear that business as usual is not good enough. As the infinite cost of climate change reaches irreversible highs, now is the time for bold collective action.“
United Nations, The Climate Crisis – A Race We Can Win