The new U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report makes very clear what we stand to lose in the next decade without a significant course correction: a chance at a “livable and sustainable future for all.” Our home, the Earth, is on fire and we need to act.
The arguments against contending with the impending impacts of man-made climate change were never great, but they seem downright self-destructive now. We understand that data can have different interpretations and no predictive models are perfect, but at some point you have to trust that there is an observable reality that we can measure. It is getting hotter and sea levels are rising.
The consensus of scientists and researchers from different countries and backgrounds working together is about as close to the absolute truth as we’re going to get, and that truth is looking dire. We can wait and see if they were right, at which point it will be too late to actually do anything about it, or we can act now and stave off events that will almost certainly cause global devastation, kill millions of people worldwide, and become exponentially harder to reverse.
In fact, we don’t have to wait anymore. Claims that these are natural climate fluctuations that we shouldn’t worry about ring hollow to Californians whose homes have gone up in flames, Puerto Ricans dealing with Hurricane Maria’s devastation for years, or Buffalonians whose loved ones froze to death in December’s blizzard.
Extreme weather is becoming routine, and it will only get more routine if governments around the world don’t commit to aggressive intervention, including a massive reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Fortunately, the report lays out a clear road map for getting where we need to be.
Unfortunately, that road map will have to be implemented by political leaders often more concerned about short-term electoral cycles. It was 16 years ago that the IPCC and Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to highlight the dangers of climate change. The clock keeps ticking towards catastrophe.
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