From NOTICE News Daily for March 22, 2023
The head of the U.N. is warning climate change is a “ticking bomb,” as a new report says this may be humanity’s final chance to curb changes that could be catastrophic.
MORE INFO:
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that the “climate time bomb is ticking” as he urged rich nations on Monday to slash emissions sooner after a new assessment from scientists said there was little time to lose in tackling climate change. >> Full story
- More: World’s top climate scientists issue ‘survival guide for humanity,’ call for major course correction (CNBC)
- Primary document: Visit the report website
- Opinion: The Latest IPCC Report: What is it and why does it matter? (From environmentalist group The Nature Conservancy)
TRANSCRIPT
A new report says the Earth will hit a critical point when it comes to global warming – and if countries don’t act now, the planet may overheat to a dangerous new level. That’s according to a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of experts convened by the United Nations.
SOT: “Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast. As today’s report of the International Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC details, humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the past 200 years.”
They say on average, the Earth is 1 point 1 degrees Celsius warmer since the Industrial Revolution began in the 1850s. But that number continues to rise, causing severe weather conditions that impact everyone on the planet.
Experts say that if the temperature reaches 1 point 5 degrees, the results will be catastrophic – risking more severe weather, food and water shortages, and conflict.
The U.N. panel’s window to prevent this is rapidly closing – and carbon emissions must be cut in half by the mid 2030s in order to meet the 1 point 5 degree goal.
To accomplish this, the to-do list is long. They say the world needs to transform agriculture and eating habits, speed the transition to green energy, and rich countries must go further in reducing emissions.
The U.N. worries that current climate agreements might not go far enough, and global warming could reach as high as 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century at current policy levels.
