New U.N. climate report: Massive change already here for world's oceans and frozen regions

[Zorro]

Source: Washington Post

Climate change is already causing staggering impacts on the oceans and ice-filled regions that encompass 80 percent of the Earth, and future damage from rising seas and melting glaciers is now all but certain, according to a sobering new report from the United Nations.

The warming climate is already killing coral reefs, supercharging monster storms, and fueling deadly marine heat waves and record losses of sea ice. And Wednesday’s report on the world’s oceans, glaciers, polar regions and ice sheets finds that such effects only foreshadow a more catastrophic future as long as greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked.

Given current emissions levels, a number of serious impacts are essentially unavoidable, says the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Extreme floods that have historically struck some coastal cities and small island nations once every 100 years will become an annual occurrence by 2050, according to the IPCC. In addition, if emissions continue to increase, global sea levels could rise by more than three feet by the end of this century — around 12 percent higher than the group estimated as recently as 2013. Melting glaciers could harm water supplies, and warming oceans could wreck marine fisheries.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/09/25/new-un-climate-report-massive-change-already-here-worlds-oceans-frozen-regions/

[democratisphere]

1. The damage to all of the Earth's ecosystems is irreversible because humans

won't do enough to stop the carnage leading to total extinction.

[Iliyah]

2. Look at what greed has done to the earth.

God's creation.

[roamer65]

4. Population reduction is inevitable.

One way or another, it’s coming.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Humans are doing this, especially greedy ones.

The poor animals and plants are the ones I feel sorry for since they are the innocent victims of self serving, destructive humans.

[athena]

6. Keep driving your SUVs, folks; nothing to see here.

Not long ago, there was a thread in GD in which at least fifty people pressured a DUer, who was concerned about buying a car not made in the United States, to buy an SUV instead, even though s/he preferred cars.

And then there was a thread in which a DUer asked if small people ever drove large SUVs, and DUer after DUer bragged about how s/he was a small person and drove a giant SUV.

Just try starting a thread in GD asking DUers to even slightly reduce their meat intake, and you will be flamed right off the forum.

There used to be an environmental conservancy organization in my building. Every day, the employees would arrive in their SUVs. How did they help the environment by driving SUVs? Well, they had pro-environment stickers on their bumper stickers!

We will get exactly what we deserve. We cannot pretend to care about the environment if we demonstrate with our actions, every single day, that we do not give a damn.

[RussBLib]

7. I live on a barrier island off of Texas

Our island is about 9' above sea level. Believe me, we are on the lookout for rising sea levels. About the only sign of it thus far, however, is an increased number of "coastal alerts" which generally means that tides are maybe a foot higher than normal. Is this a sign of climate change? Maybe. Probably. But anytime there is a disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico, we get increased coastal alerts.

If our local government is really concerned about rising sea levels, they show no sign of it. They also say merely that they are on the lookout. But construction goes on unabated on our little sand bar. There is still talk about building a new bridge across the laguna to connect us to the mainland at a second point. While I would love to have a second way off of this island, I wonder why the state of Texas would invest hundreds of millions of dollars into new infrastructure if the island is going to slip beneath the waves? The new bridge is currently on hold, for reasons not well explained by the state.

[area51]

8. Kick. n/t

[NickB79]

9. My daughter is 9, I'm almost 40

By 2050, when the shit is really hitting the fan, she'll be my current age.

I'm really struggling with deciding when and how I should have "the talk" with her.

And by "the talk" I don't mean the sex talk; I mean the "you're going to watch the planet burn as we strip it like a swarm of locusts and see billions die as civilization collapses" talk.

What do you guys think? Wait till she's 10?