Climate Change Is Harming the Planet Faster Than We Can Adapt, U.N. Warns

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Climate Change Is Harming the Planet Faster Than We Can Adapt, U.N. Warns

Countries aren’t doing nearly enough to protect against the disasters to come as the planet keeps heating up, a major new scientific report concludes.

By Brad Plumer and Raymond Zhong
Feb. 28, 2022
Updated 7:24 a.m. ET

The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly that they could soon overwhelm the ability of both nature and humanity to adapt unless greenhouse gas emissions are quickly reduced, according to a major new scientific report released on Monday. (1) The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, is the most detailed look yet at the threats posed by global warming. It concludes that nations aren’t doing nearly enough to protect cities, farms and coastlines from the hazards that climate change has unleashed so far, such as record droughts and rising seas, let alone from the even greater disasters in store as the planet continues to warm.

Written by 270 researchers from 67 countries, the report is “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” said António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general. “With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people and the planet are getting clobbered by climate change.”

The perils are already visible across the globe, the report said. In 2019, storms, floods and other extreme weather events displaced more than 13 million people across Asia and Africa. Rising heat and drought are killing crops and trees, putting millions worldwide at increased risk of hunger and malnutrition, while mosquitoes carrying diseases like malaria and dengue are spreading into new areas. Roughly half the world’s population currently faces severe water scarcity at least part of the year.

Few nations are escaping unscathed. Blistering heat waves made worse by global warming have killed hundreds of people in the United States and Canada, ferocious floods have devastated Germany and China, and wildfires have raged out of control in Australia and Siberia.

{snip}

(1) https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/climate/climate-change-ipcc-report.html

[nitpicker]

1. From The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/28/ipcc-issues-bleakest-warning-yet-impacts-climate-breakdown

(snip)
Allowing global temperatures to increase by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as looks likely on current trends in greenhouse gas emissions, would result in some “irreversible” impacts. These include the melting of ice caps and glaciers, and a cascading effect whereby wildfires, the die-off of trees, the drying of peatlands and the thawing of permafrost release additional carbon emissions, amplifying the warming further.
(snip)

John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said the report “paints a dire picture of the impacts already occurring because of a warmer world and the terrible risks to our planet if we continue to ignore science. We have seen the increase in climate-fuelled extreme events, and the damage that is left behind – lives lost and livelihoods ruined. The question at this point is not whether we can altogether avoid the crisis – it is whether we can avoid the worst consequences.”
(snip)

[Delphinus]

2. At this point,

there is really NO stopping. Even a COMPLETE stop right this minute, heating is baked in for around 50 years.

[nitpicker]

3. NPR's relay of BBC NewsHour

Is on now on DC radio (88.5 FM, WAMU). Just a brief mention.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. Thanks. I have a radio right here. I'll tune that in. NT

[nitpicker]

5. Sorry

BBC only briefly broke away from topic U/R.

Short term versus long term.

As has been said, whatever bleeds leads.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. Back to WETA it is. Thanks anyway.

https://weta.org/fm/playlists

[llashram]

7. the heat is slowly

rising in the crockpot of humanity. If nuclear war doesn't get us, this will IF the leaders of the world don't reach a consensus on how to stop the demise of our habitat. Especially our leaders, corporate and political. And no, I have no idea how to do it except never to own a car again.

[Auggie]

8. Appreciate the new warning, but nothing's going to change

Sorry for being a DU Downer. But that's the truth.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

9. The price of energy needs to reflect the damage done. n/t

[Javaman]

11. I recently joined twitter. my only link is to the Thwaites glacier....

they are predicting that the ice shelf that holds that and the Pine glacier back, will collapse within 3 to 5 years. at that point, there will be nothing holding back the Thwaites and the Pine Glaciers from plunging into the sea.

the Thwaites alone will raise ocean sea levels globally between 3 to 5 feet. add in the Pine Glacier and we will see an additional 2 feet.

it's going to happen, not if, not maybe but yes, it's going to happen.

combine that with the further heating up of the oceans (due to lack of ice to reflect back the sun) and we have an addition ocean levels rise.

now think of all the coastal cities, towns and communities around the world that are at or just a little bit above sea level.

we are now witnessing various forms of climate related migrations of populations around the word. image what that will look like when the seas rise a minimum of 4 feet.

now think about loss of coastal farm land just to water rise (I could go into what will happen when the wet bulb temps get insane or the dry heat gets so hot that daytime travel, work or anything else becomes impossible, but you get the picture)

we're fucked. and fucked for a very long time.

yes, yes, the next war will be over water, but it will also be over farm land

the human population on this planet will begin crash at the mid century mark. all the various methods used to try and support the worlds hunger will begin to collapse. it will be slow at first but it will ramp up pretty damn quickly.

for instance, the amount of land currently used to grow coffee beans will be halved by 2050.

that's just coffee. banana's probably will be extinct or at least no longer available. for the general population. just those two industries have an enormous support systems. when those two crops collapse, so will the various ancillary industries and support systems. that's two small examples of crops that aren't necessary to support life.

expand it out and lose your mind.

[Magoo48]

12. Well, big oil is doubling down right now; so there's that.

Without oil funds to underwrite his aggressive madness, Putin's army would still be in Russia.