Humankind has failed to secure a “liveable future” for itself. Without mincing words, the report warns that we may have run out of time to arrest global warming and that even if ongoing efforts succeed, there is no escaping a “horrifying atlas of human suffering” with “worse to come”. In a similar report last August, the IPCC had sounded “code red for humanity”, stating that global warming was “dangerously close to being out of control” and that the residents of this planet were “unequivocally” to blame for it. While the earlier report had warned global leaders to step up efforts to arrest global warming and slow down irreversible damage to the earth, the latest one appears to have sounded the planet’s death knell by predicting that the collapse of ecosystems, outbreak of disease, deadly heatwaves, extinction of species, drought and dangerous wildfires and storms will continue even if environmental pollution is reduced quickly.
Nearly 200 nations approved a major UN climate change report detailing the accelerating impacts of global warming on Sunday, at the end of a sometimes fraught two-week meeting overshadowed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that debates had concluded over the report’s crucial “Summary for Policymakers”, a 40-page overview distilling the thousands of pages of scientific research, which has been reviewed line-by-line and will be made public on Monday (today). Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, mosquito-borne disease, deadly heat, water shortages, and reduced crop yields are already measurably worse due to global heating. Just in the last year, the world has seen a cascade of unprecedented floods, heatwaves and wildfires across four continents.
All these impacts will accelerate in the coming decades even if the carbon pollution driving climate change is rapidly brought to heel, the report is expected to warn, according to an early draft seen by
It will also underscore the urgent need for “adaptation” — a term that refers to preparations for devastating consequences that can no longer be avoided.
In some cases this means that adapting to intolerably hot days, flash flooding and storm surges has become a matter of life and death.
“The backbone of climate action is science and the science is clear. It’s telling us how dire our situation is. What is lacking is action from governments,” he said
Some of the worst affected regions will include Africa, Asia, South and Central America. For South Asia in particular, there is considerable evidence that the tipping point for substantial changes in the water cycle might be very close.
This would translate into prolonged droughts, heavier rains and greater flood hazards, in addition to the increased threat of glacial lake outbursts. For the fifth most populous country in the world, and one which is already among the 10 nations most vulnerable to climate change, the report spells ecological and socioeconomic doom.
