UN's new climate report reveals a dire future

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Here is how to interpret the alarming new United Nations-sponsored report on global warming: We are living in a horror movie. The world needs statesmen to lead the way to safety. Instead we have President Trump, who essentially says, “Hey, let’s all head to the dark, creepy basement where the chain saws and razor-sharp axes are kept. What could go wrong?”

The answer is almost everything, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The impact of human-induced warming is worse than previously feared, the report released Monday says, and only drastic coordinated action will keep the damage short of catastrophe.

To this point, climate change has been a slow-motion calamity whose impacts, month to month and year to year, have been hard to perceive. Unfortunately, according to the report, that is about to change.

The burning of fossil fuels on an industrial scale has raised global temperatures by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). That may not sound like much, but look at the consequences we’re already seeing: Stronger, slower, wetter tropical storms. Unprecedented heat waves. Devastating floods. Dying coral reefs. A never-before-seen summer shipping lane across the Arctic Ocean.

Meanwhile, humankind continues to pump heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a tragically self-destructive rate. The IPCC calculates that a further temperature rise of about 1 degree — almost inevitable, given our dependence on coal, oil and gas — would be challenging but manageable. A increase of about 2 degrees, however, would be disastrous.

What’s the difference? With a 1-degree rise, about 14 percent of the world’s population would be vulnerable to severe and deadly heat waves every five years; with a 2-degree rise, that figure jumps to 37 percent. With a 1-degree rise, an additional 350 million city dwellers worldwide will face water shortages; with a 2-degree rise, 411 million people will suffer such drought. With a 1-degree rise, coral reefs will experience “very frequent mass mortalities”; with a 2-degree rise, coral reefs will “mostly disappear.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/robinson-uns-new-climate-report-reveals-a-dire-future/?utm_source=DAILY+HERALD&utm_campaign=670e2f6e05-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d81d073bb4-670e2f6e05-228635337

[saidsimplesimon]

1. Thank you, Mama,

"The answer by friends is blowing in the wind." Peter, Paul and Mary

As a college freshman, I was in awe when attending my first live concert.

[gordianot]

2. Someday Congress will investigate how this happened.

Wonder who will get the blame?

[Moostache]

3. These reports need a change in tenor...

What’s the difference? With a 1-degree rise, about 14 percent of the world’s population would be vulnerable to severe and deadly heat waves every five years; with a 2-degree rise, that figure jumps to 37 percent. With a 1-degree rise, an additional 350 million city dwellers worldwide will face water shortages; with a 2-degree rise, 411 million people will suffer such drought. With a 1-degree rise, coral reefs will experience “very frequent mass mortalities”; with a 2-degree rise, coral reefs will “mostly disappear.”

That passage above SHOULD start to read as follows:

What’s the difference? With a 1-degree rise, about 14 percent of the world’s population WILL DIE DUE to severe and deadly heat waves every five years; with a 2-degree rise, that figure jumps to 37 percent. With a 1-degree rise, an additional 350 million city dwellers worldwide will DIE OF DEHYDRATION AND LACK OF WATER; with a 2-degree rise, 411 million people will suffer such FATE. With a 1-degree rise, coral reefs will experience “very frequent DEATH”; with a 2-degree rise, coral reefs will “ALL DIE AND BE LOST FOREVER”

In all honesty, the language surrounding climate change should have been far more dire for DECADES already...people out there STILL believe that there is some level of doubt that makes doing nothing a rational or even sane choice...it does not work that way. Climate scientists were bullied early on into the soft language and rosy, overly optimistic projections by the denier crowd and their funders. They used this "uncertainty" to sell doubt to the masses and then used fear to make sure no actions were taken. The sad thing is that had this issue been attacked in the 1960's and 1970's with the level of urgency it requires, we would literally be living in a totally different world - run on renewable energy and free from the petroleum cartels and companies vice grip on all life.

Here is the bottom line:
If we do not rise up GLOBALLY, replace EVERY leader in EVERY government with people that truly understand the urgency of the situation, BILLIONS will die in this century and the survival of life on Earth (at least that is greater than the size of a house cat) will be in serious doubt by 2150, period, full stop, no qualifiers. Change NOW or the die off starts in 10-15 years and peaks in 50-75 years.

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS or BILLIONS OF LIVES...choose now, because what you do determines their fate first and all of us eventually...

[Freelancer]

4. We broke it, but have we woke it?

A few things:

1: When we spout end-of-the-world rhetoric, sadly a large segment of the investor class thinks only of money to be made. They can sell us water, filtration, eventually even bottled air. Dollar signs!

2: Poor people in countries not easily pronounced are going to die in the largest numbers as a result of this catastrophe -- people who don't buy products or services by fortune 500 companies. These are people who have mining and property rights in areas with resources the first world wants to exploit, and who tend to be more pliable when their children need food, cool air and water. -- Another reason the first world is allowing this to happen.

3: Convincing people of the reality of climate change is good, but feeding fear and panic makes them prey for unscrupulous leaders with radical agendas to ensure their particular nation's "climate future" -- all others be damned. We can't allow climate change to become the cause of a third world war.

4: So, as an agnostic I'm pained to say, let's have faith. Educate, but not panic and believe in the ingenuity of our own people. We're stewards of the Earth now. We broke it. We bought it. Now let's to work on climate science. We can't see a way out right now, but it exists.