It offers a guide for righting the ship.
The United Nations’ climate change research group issued a new report on Monday with an unequivocal finding: We’re in deep trouble.of its kind, and the most damning in its conclusions. The planet is already 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer than it was in the late 19century, but we may well reach the 1.5-degree threshold—the level the U.N. Paris Agreement prefers to stay under—by the end of this decade or the next.
who contributed to the report stated that humans are “unequivocally” responsible for this state of affairs, which will affect “all regions” of the globe—including supposedly climate-friendly cities—by hastening the frequency of heat waves, formerly once-in-a-century storms, droughts, and sea level rise, as well as the pace of glacial and permafrost melting.
So, it all seems pretty bad. But there’s a useful, instructive, and perhaps hopeful way to look at the horrifying numbers.One of the key lines notes that every half a degree Celsius increase causes “clearly discernible” jumps in the intensity and frequency of global warming effects. We already know what 1.1 degrees Celsius looks like: heat waves, flooding, relentless rain and storms and disasters, droughts and water depletion.