Not a ‘hoax’ call, Take Climate Action!

By S R Ranjan: Awake from thy slumber, for climate change is nearer now and the changes are becoming irreversible. How humankind has altered the earth’s environment and climate is being deeply manifested in what the world is witnessing as climate change crisis and the people are already living through all of its ‘misadventures’ every day. Eminently so, beyond anyone’s denial, climate change is not just a reality today, but a global ‘emergence’ that’s foreclosing the future, threatening lives and is a red alert for our planet. We have no ‘Plan B’ for climate action, as we have no time to spare.

For years, in denial of the evident reality, the world failed to take opportune climate action and overlooked the commitment — the Paris Agreement — to combat the challenges of climate crisis. In spite of the science of climate change being a well-established fact, countries and governments acted ‘indifferently’ on this science to prevent ‘runaway climate change’.

What happened? Latest findings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report — Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis — state that changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes are irreversible. “You (IPCC) have been telling us for over three decades of the dangers of allowing the planet to warm. The world listened, but it didn’t hear… As a result, climate change is a problem that is here, now,” said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Inger Andersen on the release of the IPCC report.

As the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and gears up to build back better, the climate report warns climate change is widespread, rapid and intensifying and human activities are the main cause. “The IPCC’s report is a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

The climate report puts it on paper that scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system. “We now have a much clearer picture of the past, present and future climate, which is essential for understanding where we are headed, what can be done, and how we can prepare. It has been clear for decades that the Earth’s climate is changing, and the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed,” said IPCC WGI co-chairman Valerie Masson-Delmotte on the latest report.

As a matter of fact, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis provides the most updated physical understanding of the climate system and climate change. With no surprise to the human- induced climate change, findings from the report show increases in well-mixed greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations since around 1750 that are unequivocally caused by human activities and states that unless there are immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5°C or even 2°C will be beyond reach. It is likely that well-mixed GHGs contributed a warming of 1.0°C to 2.0°C. “Stabilizing the climate will require strong, rapid, and sustained reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching ‘NetZero’ CO2 emissions,” said WGI co-chairman Panmao Zhai.

Presenting a science basis to the changing climate system, the reports finds human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2000 years. “Human influence is very likely the main driver of the increase in global averaged precipitation over land since 1950. The global retreat of glaciers since the 1990s, the decrease in Arctic sea ice area between 1979-1988 and 2010-2019 and sea level rise since at least 1971. The global mean sea level increased by 0.20 (0.15 to 0.25) m between 1901 and 2018.”

According to the climate report, it is virtually certain that human-caused CO2 emissions has caused global acidification of the surface open ocean and warming of the global upper ocean since the 1970s.  Evidences of these changes point to the fact that climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes — global warming, heat waves, heavy precipitation, floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones — across the globe.

Ahead of the COP26 conference in Glasgow, the world leaders have the opportunity to focus on the findings of the Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis report, come together to address the issues collectively and take climate action decisions. “If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. I count on government leaders and all stakeholders to ensure COP26 is a success,” said Antonio Guterres.

(Singh Rakesh Ranjan)

Freelance Journalist

(Representational images: source