20 Mar 2023 6:07 pm
The planet is on track for catastrophic warming unless countries take extreme action, according to the IPCC’s latest climate report.
Please save us, Greta, for we know not what we do.
The IPCC’s 2023 Climate Report Has Dire Warnings About Humanity’s Future | WIRED
TODAY THE UN’S Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is releasing what may become a pivotal document of human progress—or lack thereof, if we don’t heed its warnings. It’s a “synthesis” report, summarizing the findings from the six previous IPCC reports that laid out the science of climate change, like how the food system spews greenhouse gas emissions and how the oceans and polar regions are transforming. The report is a full-throated call for the massive—yet doable—changes our species must enact to limit the damage that comes with each fraction of a degree of warming. It’s a temporary adieu of sorts, as the next climate report from the IPCC won’t land for at least another five years.“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all,” the report notes. “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.”
The science of climate change is “unequivocal,” the report stresses: We’ve already warmed the planet by 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels—spawning fiercer wildfires, heat waves, droughts, and storms, which are killing people and destabilizing ecosystems. And permafrost thawing that could unleash long-lost diseases that will run rampant over the Earth.
The final installment in this IPCC series lands at a moment when humanity is reaching a crossroads: business as usual, or accelerating the green revolution. “If we act now,” said IPCC chair Hoesung Lee in a statement, “we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all. If we don't, we are all doomed to horror and cataclysm."