The latest report of the IPCC being released, with a huge warning and reality check: that even if we take essential steps forward, we are at critical point of still sliding backwards…
The IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – comprehensive report covers the following:
Chapter 1 : Point of departure and key concepts
Chapter 2 : Terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and their services
Chapter 3 : Ocean and coastal ecosystems and their services
chapter 4 : Water
Chapter 5 : Food, fibre, and other ecosystem products
Chapter 6 : Cities, settlements and key infrastructure
Chapter 7 : Health, wellbeing and the changing structure of communities
Chapter 8 : Poverty, livelihoods and sustainable development
Chapter 9 : Africa
Chapter 10 : Asia
Chapter 11 : Australasia – will be looked at carefully in next post
Chapter 12 : Central & South America
Chapter 13 : Europe
Chapter 14 : North America
Chapter 15 : small islands
“ Even if we manage to stop the planet warming beyond 1.5℃ this century, we will still see profound impacts to billions of people on every continent and in every sector, and the window to adapt is narrowing quickly. These are among the disturbing findings of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
At 1.5℃ warming above pre-industrial levels, the new report projects that, for example, children under 12 will experience a fourfold increase in natural disasters in their lifetime, and up to 14% of all species assessed will likely face a very high risk of extinction. This is our best-case scenario.
Impacts such as these will not be evenly spread, with countries in Africa, Asia and low-lying island nations set to be hardest hit. Yet these nations are among the least able to adapt.
We are three vice-chairs of the IPCC, and helped guide the hundreds of scientists worldwide who authored this report. As the second in a set of three, this report gives the most up-to-date synthesis of what we know about the impacts of climate change, and how to adapt to them. “
Sources : The Conversation website ; IPCC
