The IPCC issues the strongest alarm yet: We cannot afford to lose another decade

[pscot]

BERLIN — The countries of the world have dragged their feet so long on global warming that the situation is now critical, experts appointed by the United Nations reported Sunday, and only an intensive worldwide push over the next 15 years can stave off potentially disastrous climatic changes later in the century.

It remains technically possible to keep planetary warming to a tolerable level, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found, according to a report unveiled here. But even in parts of the world like Europe that have tried hardest, governments are still a long way from taking the steps that are sufficient to do the job, the experts found.

“We cannot afford to lose another decade,” said Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chairman of the committee that wrote the report. “If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization.”

The report is likely to increase the pressure to secure an ambitious new global climate treaty that is supposed to be completed in late 2015 and take effect in 2020. But the divisions between wealthy countries and poorer countries that are making such a treaty difficult, and have long bedeviled international climate talks, were on display yet again in Berlin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/14/science/earth/un-climate-panel-warns-speedier-action-is-needed-to-avert-disaster.html?hp&_r=0

[gtar100]

1. I listen outside my window and look across the Metropolitan area and see no abatement in the burning

of fossil fuels. Ten years will go by in the blink of an eye and who will curtail their driving, cut out on heat or air conditioning? Who will stop eating meat and live on locally grown foods only? How many will actually install solar panels or plug into wind-generated power sources by then? How many will be able to afford to buy electric cars by then? Ten years and *billions* of people who are either too tangled up in poverty or too preoccupied with oppressive situations, or too stubborn to change. If change needs to happen, it won't be because humanity voluntarily makes the decision to do the right thing. Sadly, it will only happen if it is forced upon us. And it may be nature itself making the decisions for us. How do you get that through the head of a republican who's raking in the dough because of our very dependence on fossil fuels? Ten years? We're on the 500 year plan to transition to alternative energy sources.

[pscot]

3. Add to that the new coal fired generators

coming on line every day in China and India; the fact that Germany's lurch toward renewables has actually seen an increase in coal consumption; plans to ship 538 billion tons of coal from the Powder River Basin to China; the likelihood that Keystone XL will be approved. I think the IPCC are whistling past the graveyard, but who knows. Maybe we'll undergo a mass conversion.

[Prophet 451]

2. I wish I could believe it will make a difference

But between the 23% of Americans who don't believe in global warming, the outright bribery that is teh campaign financing system and teh SCOTUS allowing the rich to just outright buy politicians, I can't have any hope that something will get done in time.

NOTE: This does not mean give up. I'm just in a funk today.

[NickB79]

4. 1000 new coal-fired plants under construction as we speak

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/11/un-greenhouse-gas-emissions-doubled-decade-ipcc-report

Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations, and there are more than 1,000 new plants under construction worldwide.

Can you feel the sense of urgency?!?!

Lose a decade? We've lost a fucking CENTURY.

[pscot]

5. If we keep on the way we're livin'

we will lose it all.

[truebrit71]

6. We've already lost...

...we need to prepare for the aftermath...