The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a sobering read but not a surprising one.
It predicts that the world will breach the carbon emissions targets set at the Paris summit in 2015 earlier than expected.
Signatory countries agreed to try to keep temperature rises below 2C while “pursuing efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
The IPCC said in 2018 that the 1.5C target would be breached by 2040 unless action is taken and the latest study confirms this forecast.
The report also says it is unarguable that the warming has been caused by human activity and therefore only a reduction in that activity can keep temperature rises within bounds.
It is, of course, possible that even if warming is anthropogenic in origin, mankind is not actually able to stop it.
Once the climate has started to change, the capacity of humans to adjust the planetary thermostat may well be limited.
That does not mean we should not try because reducing pollutants is a good thing in itself, whether or not it is linked to warming.
Indeed, countries like the UK have devised strategies for cutting carbon that will be hugely expensive to implement but is seen as essential. The problem is that we contribute less than two percent of annual global emissions.
Scientists say if these can be halved by 2030 and net-zero achieved by the middle of this century, it might be possible to reverse the rise in temperatures.
But this is simply not going to happen unless the worst polluters, like China, India, and the US, show much bigger reductions.
Getting them to commit to far more drastic cuts is the challenge for the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November and yet there is little indication much will change.
Despite the economic slowdown occasioned by the pandemic, China’s CO2 emissions have grown at their fastest pace in more than a decade. …snip…
But if something is unavoidable then it needs to be prepared for. Cajoling countries that are unwilling to listen may be a fruitless exercise. Adapting our lives to cope with inevitable warming is just as important as identifying the cause.
h/t GWPF
Read rest at Daily Telegraph
In keeping with being realistic about earth climate, I was very alarmed to find some retrievals when I searched on “Climate Change Rejection” most of which highlight the errant mental state of those who refuse to believe that humans are damaging the planet’s climate. In particular, there is the following from the Australian Psychological Society:
https://www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/advocacy/Advocacy-social-issues/Environment-climate-change-psychology/Resources-for-Psychologists-and-others-advocating/The-psychology-of-climate-change-denial
where it makes the following claims (among others) . . .
Robust studies of climate change perceptions in Australia, the UK and America show that only very small numbers of people actually deny that climate change is happening. The figures range from between 5 to 8% of the population. However this small minority can be influential in casting doubt on the science, spreading misinformation and impeding progress on climate policies. Science denial can be stopped by first explaining the psychological research into why and how people deny climate science. The best way to neutralise misinformation is to expose people to a weak form of the misinformation. First, explain the fallacy employed by the myth. Once people understand the techniques used to distort the science, they can reconcile the myth with the fact.
These statements ring very familiar to me from the days of Communist Russia/Soviet Union during which times, the ruling authorities saw it fitting to “re=educate,” “retrain,” or subjecting their non-conforming citizens to behavior and thought modification (read that as TORTURE) in order to keep them in line. Clearly the APS thinks the time is coming when those supposed few of us who have not been convinced of the truth of global warming and human-caused climate change need to be modified to correct the psychological deficiencies we suffer so that we may also see the light. Think of this as “Being Absorbed,” for those of who who are familiar with episodes of the Star Trek original series.
This is potentially scary stuff. We have all seen how news feeds and web-published editorials have almost universally discontinued allowing readers’ commentary, except of course for Climate Change Dispatch. This is part of a concerted effort to make sure that dissenters like myself and other who read these press releases do not get a public voice on the issues. The article, cited above, makes the reasoning for this clear, as it states: “this small minority can be influential in casting doubt on the science, spreading misinformation and impeding progress on climate policies.”
Obviously, the global warming scare-mongers sense that we are correct but they cannot afford to confront us with facts or to allow the greater public to know that there is a faction of the population who remain firmly grounded in the scientific truth about earth’s climate.
Agree that we should work to reduce pollutants emitted into the atmosphere but CO2 is NOT a pollutant. Without this trace gas we would not be here. And having it increase is getting us out of the severe “drought” in CO2 which was getting close to dangerous levels.
Put a end to this fear making with the School Kids end the Brainwashing by the Eco-Freaks and the NEA