Climate change: Five things we've learned from the IPCC report

BBC News ^ | March 1, 2022 | by Matt McGrath

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A new report released this week by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) looks at the causes, impacts and solutions to climate change.

The report gives the clearest indication to date of how a warmer world is affecting all living things on Earth.

Here are five things we learnt from it.

1- Things are way worse than we thought

From the melting of the Greenland ice sheet to the destruction of coral reefs, climate related impacts are hitting the world at the high end of what modellers once expected. And much more quickly than previously assessed by the IPCC.

2 - Loss and damage gets scientific backing

For several years, developing countries have been trying to get richer nations to take the idea of loss and damage seriously.

3 - Technology is not a silver bullet

According to the IPCC, the use of some technologies designed to limit warming or reduce CO2 could make matters worse rather than better.

4 - Cities offer hope

While large cities are hotspots for climate impacts, they also offer a real opportunity to avoid the worst impacts of warming.

5 - The small window is closing fast.

While this is a bleak assessment of the impacts now and in the future, the authors remain convinced that the worst impacts can be averted - if we act in time.

The IPCC says this opportunity for action will only last for the rest of this decade, as the final sentence in the new report underlines.

[EastTexasTraveler]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Ho hum.

[Luke21]

Only one human turnip wrote this one, as opposed to three mouth breathes in today’s Asspress propaganda pantload.

[ConservativeInPA]

Um, one little question. Where’s the science? I’m not talking about models either.

[wjcsux]

Remember, this “news” is brought to you by the same people who say men can get pregnant.