UN report predicts catastrophic consequences if greenhouse gas emissions not reduced by 2030

[workinclasszero]

BY TIMOTHY CAMA October 07, 2018 - 09:43 PM EDT

A new report from a United Nations panel warns that the world might be on a path toward catastrophic climate change if greenhouse gas emissions aren't cut dramatically by 2030.

The report, released late Sunday by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says the world needs to decrease emissions by 45 percent by 2030, or else the atmosphere could hit 1.5 degrees of warming by then.

At that level of warming - as measured as the Earth's average temperature compared with pre-industrial levels - up to 90 percent of tropical coral reefs could die, Arctic warming could cause multiple feet of sea level rise and yields of key crops would drop.

World leaders would need to take "unprecedented" actions in order to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, a key level that scientists believe would avoid many of the worst effects of climate change.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/410343-world-needs-unprecedented-efforts-to-avoid-key-global-warming-level?amp&__twitter_impression=true

[OnlinePoker]

1. Which was the same thing they said 29 years ago.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.

Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ?eco- refugees,? ? threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP.

He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

https://apnews.com/bd45c372caf118ec99964ea547880cd0

[The_jackalope]

2. It was true then

But they didn't say when the consequences would be felt. We didn't act then, but the consequences are just being felt now. The window for effective action closed at least 20 (and really more like 50) years ago, but it's politically "inexpedient" to mention that uncomfortable fact.

[OnlinePoker]

3. But nothing was done in the succeeding 10 years from that report

Therefore, we're 19 years too late to do anything to avoid the issue, so saying we have another 10 years is BS.

[The_jackalope]

4. Oh, I agree that saying we have "another" decade is BS.

That decade expired when the first one did.

In fact, I think that decade actually expired in about 1910.