The IPCC just released its update on the effect of Climate Change on our planet. The results from increasing Greenhouse Gases are now irrefutably being felt every day. We can avoid the worst impacts if we act now. We have the systems and technology to address the issues but we must act quickly, and decisively.
This might seem like a ‘downer’. Sometimes it seems like there is nothing that we can do and nothing will change because nothing ever changes. But that just isn’t true. Human history is punctuated not only by collapse which we often like to focus on, but also by incredible human ingenuity, progress, prosperity, freedom, and wonder. This challenge could represent the genesis of one of the greatest periods of human innovation, prosperity, and social cohesion that our species has ever seen. We face a global problem that can only be resolved by a global solution. Yet human history shows that nothing can bring even the most fractious society together like a common enemy. And right now, that common enemy is Carbon Dioxide and Methane.
I will continue to do what I can and encourage local politicians, business leaders, school leaders, city leaders and all and sundry do the same. I am an optimist and I believe Humanity *will* rise to the challenge. No, we won’t be able to reverse some of what we have done, but we will be able to change course enough to avoid disaster, and at the same time we will create a world that is fundamentally better, cleaner, and fairer in the process.
It will be the first, and the greatest, victory that could be celebrated by the entire human species.
Here are excerpts from the New York Times article from March 31, 2014
Panel’s Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically summarizes climate science, concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct. The oceans are rising at a pace that threatens coastal communities and are becoming more acidic as they absorb some of the carbon dioxide given off by cars and power plants, which is killing some creatures or stunting their growth, the report found.
In particular, the report emphasized that the world’s food supply is at considerable risk — a threat that could have serious consequences for the poorest nations.
“Now we are at the point where there is so much information, so much evidence, that we can no longer plead ignorance,” said Michel Jarraud, secretary general of the World Meteorological Organization.
The experts did find a bright spot, however. Since the group issued its report in 2007, it has found growing evidence that governments and businesses around the world are starting extensive plans to adapt to climate disruptions, even as some conservatives in the United States and a small number of scientists continue to deny that a problem exists.
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