WORLD "Untold human suffering" is in the near future as U.N. warns climate change is pushing Earth

[Uncle Joe]

closer to extreme warming

Three new reports from the United Nations paint a grim picture of what's to come in the near future as the world falls short in mobilizing against climate change. According to the reports, nations are failing to create and act on sufficient plans to reduce warming as global greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise — a combination that is putting the planet on track to hit nearly 3 degrees Celsius of warming within less than 80 years.

The U.N. issued the reports on Wednesday and Thursday providing details on the state of the planet. For years, scientists both in and outside of the organization have warned with growing urgency that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial times is critical to minimizing extreme temperatures and climate disasters.

(snip)

"Loss and damage from the climate emergency is getting worse by the day and global and national climate commitments are falling pitifully short," United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said. "...Under current policies, the world is headed for 2.8 degrees of global heating by the end of the century. In other words, we are headed for a global catastrophe."

(snip)

The third report, published by the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday, shows just how critical it is to limit those greenhouse gases. In "yet another ominous climate change warning," the agency found that the planet's three main greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — reached new highs in 2021, hitting values that amount to 149%, 262% and 124%, respectively, of pre-industrial levels.

(snip)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-united-nations-global-warming-emissions-human-suffering/

[Uncle Joe]

1. "We are now at 'code red'"

(snip)

While 2022 marks the 30th anniversary of when more than 1,700 scientists issued a landmark climate warning in 1992, the world continues to inch closer to temperatures that Earth "has not experienced over the past 3 million years."

At 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming, scientists have warned that we can expect to see more frequent — and more devastating — climate disasters. Already this year, an ongoing drought meant vital reservoirs and rivers across the U.S. and Europe reached unprecedented low water levels, while extreme heat brought record-breaking triple-digit temperatures. Heat waves plagued India and Pakistan while extreme flooding killed more than 400 people in South Africa and more than 1,000 in Pakistan.

"We are now in a major climate crisis and global catastrophe with far worse in store if we continue with business as usual. As such, there is more at stake today than at any time since the advent of the stable climate system that has supported us for more than 10,000 years," the researchers said.

"...The very future of humanity depends on the creativity, moral fiber, and perseverance of the 8 billion of us on the planet now."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/climate-change-united-nations-global-warming-emissions-human-suffering/

[Turbineguy]

2. ".....Untold human suffering...."

GOP Agenda.

[Irish_Dem]

3. The GOP elite believe they won't suffer.

They are all making plans to escape the ravages of climate change.

[Uncle Joe]

4. That's my take on it as well.

They know climate change is real, this is just their 21st century version of a holocaust.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Of course they know it is real. They are buying property they think is safe.

New Zealand, Australia, etc.

Elon Musk is not working on building space stations for fun.

[Mme. Defarge]

5. From today's NYT

Beyond Catastrophe A New Climate Reality Is Coming Into View By David Wallace-Wells
Oct. 26, 2022

First, worst-case temperature scenarios that recently seemed plausible now look much less so, which is inarguably good news and, in a time of climate panic and despair, a truly underappreciated sign of genuine and world-shaping progress.

Second, and just as important, the likeliest futures still lie beyond thresholds long thought disastrous, marking a failure of global efforts to limit warming to “safe” levels. Through decades of only minimal action, we have squandered that opportunity. Perhaps even more concerning, the more we are learning about even relatively moderate levels of warming, the harsher and harder to navigate they seem. In a news release accompanying its report, the United Nations predicted that a world more than two degrees warmer would lead to “endless suffering.”

Third, humanity retains an enormous amount of control — over just how hot it will get and how much we will do to protect one another through those assaults and disruptions. Acknowledging that truly apocalyptic warming now looks considerably less likely than it did just a few years ago pulls the future out of the realm of myth and returns it to the plane of history: contested, combative, combining suffering and flourishing — though not in equal measure for every group.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/10/26/magazine/climate-change-warming-world.html

[Uncle Joe]

6. Well I suppose if only three or four billion people die that would be better

than 7 or 8 billion losing their lives.

However I believe it's better to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

[Brenda]

8. Any way to get around that paywall?

I liked and highly recommend everyone read the Wallace-Wells book "The Uninhabitable Earth" although he leaned a bit too much towards the "there's hope we'll fix this" side and seemed to bend over backwards in a book reading I watched to not blame the people and corporations who are responsible for this situation.

I find this blurb confusing, it sounds contradictory and just as impossible as it has always been. Humanity retains an enormous amount of control? Yeah, always has and look what they (not all people but very specific people and corporations) did and keep doing?

If he is trying to calm everyone down because hey it won't be that bad, it's not going to be 140° in 50 years, it will only be 120° - well, most climate scientists have been giving conservative numbers for years. So I don't buy it.

[Mme. Defarge]

9. For what it's worth,

I’m able to access most NYT articles by using my phone’s reader view.

[Brenda]

10. I'll try that, thanks. nt

[dalton99a]

11. Millions will move to avoid drowning/starvation/violence