Image source,Reuters
The United Nations issued an important scientific report stating that human activities are changing the earth’s climate in unprecedented and even irreversible ways.
This landmark study by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that in just over a decade, there will be more and more extreme heat waves, droughts and floods, and will break a critical temperature rise limit. .
The head of the United Nations said that this report “is a red alert for mankind.”
But scientists say that disasters can be avoided if the world acts quickly.
People still hope that substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will keep rising temperatures at a stable level.
Five points of the IPCC report
- During the ten years from 2011 to 2020, the global surface temperature was 1.09 degrees Celsius higher than that from 1850 to 1900;
- The hottest in the past five years since records began in 1850;
- Compared with the period from 1901 to 1971, the recent sea level rise has almost tripled;
- Since the 1990s, the main driving factor for global glacier retreat and Arctic sea ice reduction is “very likely” (90% probability) due to human influence;
- Since the 1950s, extreme high temperature weather, including heat waves, has become more frequent and intense, while cold weather has become less frequent and severe. This situation is “basically certain.”
Five possibilities in the future
- If all emissions are present, the earth’s temperature in 2040 will be 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than the temperature between 1850 and 1900;
- If all emissions occur, the Arctic will melt at least once in September before 2050;
- Even if the temperature only rises by 1.5 degrees Celsius, some “unprecedented and unprecedented” extreme events will occur more and more;
- By 2100, extreme climatic phenomena that occur once in a hundred years will occur at least once a year in more than half of the tide measurement locations;
- Fire weather in many areas will likely increase.
“Irreversible”
The report also clearly pointed out that the climate warming we have experienced so far has caused many changes in the supporting system for the survival of the earth, and these changes are irreversible in the time frame of hundreds to thousands of years.
The ocean will continue to warm and become more acidic. The glaciers in the mountains and polar regions will continue to melt in the coming decades or even hundreds of years.
On the issue of sea level rise, scientists have established relevant statistical models for different emission levels.
As a result, the possibility that the sea level will rise by about 2 meters at the end of this century cannot be ruled out, and the possibility that the sea level will rise by 5 meters by 2150 cannot be ruled out.
Although such an outcome is unlikely, by 2100, millions of people in coastal areas will be threatened by floods.
A key aspect of the report is the expected rate of temperature rise and what it means for human safety.
Almost all countries on the planet have signed the emission reduction targets set by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Image source,EPA
The agreement aims to control the global temperature rise of this century within 2 degrees and strive to keep it below 1.5 degrees.
The report believes that if all emission scenarios that scientists can think of are taken into account, unless carbon emissions are greatly reduced, both of these temperature control targets will fall in this century.
The report believes that if all possible emissions are present, the global temperature rise will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2040. If emissions are not reduced in the next few years, this will happen ahead of schedule.
This prediction was made in the 2018 IPCC special report on a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and now this new report reconfirms this prediction.
Human affects the earth
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres agreed with the scientists’ findings. He said: “If we act together now, we can avoid climate disasters. But, as today’s report says, we have neither time to delay nor room to make excuses. I place my hopes on government leaders and All stakeholders ensure the success of COP26 of the 26th COP.”
The 42-page climate assessment report published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is entitled “Summary for Policymakers”.
This report is the first major assessment report on climate change science since 2013, and it was published less than three months after the important climate summit of COP26 in Glasgow, UK. After it, a series of other climate reports will be published.
Image source,BBC
The IPCC is a United Nations agency established in 1988 to assess the science surrounding climate change and provide scientific information to the government.
The IPCC report stated very positively: “It is clear that human influences have warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land.”
“You can escape in the robbery”
Professor Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, one of the authors of the report, said that scientists have made this point unambiguously very clearly.
Image source,Reuters
“This is a fact, and we can’t make it clearer; humans are warming the planet. This is unmistakable and undisputed.”
Petteri Taalas, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, said, “In sports terms, it can be said that the atmosphere has been affected by stimulants, which means that we have begun to observe extreme weather conditions more frequently than before. “
The authors of the report say that in the 50 years since 1970, the global surface temperature has risen faster than any of the same time periods in the past 2000 years.
This warming “has caused many extreme weather and climate conditions in every region of the world.”
Whether it’s like the recent heat waves in Greece and western North America, or like the floods in Germany and China, in the past decade, “the causes of these extreme conditions have increasingly been attributed to human influence.”
Although this report clearly predicts the possible future situations more than ever, and warns that many effects cannot be avoided at all, the authors of the report still warn people not to be pessimistic about fate.
Another author of the report, Dr. Friederike Otto of Oxford University in the United Kingdom, said: “Slowing down climate warming can minimize the possibility of a tipping point. “There is not only a dead end. “
The so-called tipping point refers to when a part of the earth’s climate system undergoes abrupt changes due to continuous warming.
For political leaders, this report is the latest warning in a long list of alarm bells, but because it is so close to the COP26 global climate summit in November, its weight is even heavier.