Plus, the oceans continue heating at a record pace.
“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “[Authorities] will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted.”
Professor Pecl spoke to The Guardian as part of its analysis of the feasibility that mankind can restrict rising global temperates to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels. Hundreds of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) replied to their survey. Almost 4-in-5 think the planet will warm by 2.5ºC (4.5ºF) by the end of the century.
To develop this story, The Guardian contacted 834 scientists — lead authors or review editors of IPCC reports since 2018. Almost half replied, 380 of 843. “The IPCC’s reports are the gold standard assessments of climate change, approved by all governments and produced by experts in physical and social sciences. The results show that many of the most knowledgeable people on the planet expect climate havoc to unfold in the coming decades.”
Today’s news is a triple whammy.
France24 noted that the European Unions’s Copernicus Climate Change Service data show that since June 2023, “every month has been the warmest such period on record.” That’s 11 months of record high temperatures.
And Axios reported that the oceans continue their meteoric increase in temperature: for the 13th straight month, the oceans have set record temperatures.
The Paris Climate Accord, which Donald Trump rejected for four years, marked the first time most of the planet’s countries (193 countries plus the European Union) agreed to curtail greenhouse gas emissions that are a major contributor to climate change. A principle commitment:
To “pursue efforts” to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C, and to keep them “well below” 2.0C above those recorded in pre-industrial times
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com