“Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world”
-IPCC Report 2/28/22
Heavy news
This week has been full of heavy news. The heartbreaking and scary situation in Ukraine, and the unknowns of the war, weigh on all of us. But there was another important news story this week, and I’m writing about it because it could easily get buried.
As I have mentioned before, my goal with this blog is to avoid being alarmist, but I do think it’s important for us to understand just how bad things could get if steps aren’t taken to change course.
On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, aka the IPCC, released their 6th major report since 1990. Written by hundreds of climate scientists and approved by 195 countries, it is the most up-to-date and comprehensive overview of climate change.
The full report is a whopping 3675 pages of dense and complicated information. If you have a lot of extra time on your hands, by all means dig in to the full report. However, in case you don’t, I read the summary for policymakers along with several reviews from reliable sources (like this, this, and this), and here are a few takeaways:
- Climate-related impacts are already affecting billions of people
- For instance, some of the effects include:
- extreme weather events
- sea level rise
- disruption of food production
- water shortages
- health risks to humans and animals
- economic damage
- Things will get worse before they get better, so we need to prepare and adapt
- We need to do more to reduce our use of fossil fuels, and fast
The Chair of the IPCC doesn’t mince words: “This report is a dire warning about the consequences of inaction. It shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet.”
On a more hopeful note, another recent article spelled out what can happen if we do take the necessary steps:
- We can avoid the worst damage if we – businesses, government, and all of us – act now
- The warming trend can reverse quickly – within 3-5 years!
- This is much faster than previous estimates
- We have the technology, we just need the will
In other words, it’s not too late.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.