Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumGlobal Temperatures On Track For 3-5 Degree Rise By 2100: UN
GENEVA (Reuters), Dec. 3, 2019 - Global temperatures are on course for a 3-5 degrees Celsius (5.4-9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) rise this century, far overshooting a global target of limiting the increase to 2C (3.6F) or less, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said on Thursday. "Greenhouse gas concentrations are once again at record levels and if the current trend continues we may see temperature increases 3-5 degrees C by the end of the century," Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the WMO's annual statement on the state of the climate.
"If we exploit all known fossil fuel resources, the temperature rise will be considerably higher." Scientists say that it is vital to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 Celsius to avert more extreme weather, rising sea levels and the loss of plant and animal species, although limiting the rise to 1.5C would have a far greater benefit.
At the 2015 Paris climate conference, the countries of the world pledged to work to limit the rise to 2C, a step that will require a radical reduction in the use of the fossil fuels that are the primary cause of global warming.
On Sunday, the most important U.N. climate conference since Paris opens in Katowice, Poland, in one of the most polluted coal-mining regions in Europe. The talks are intended to produce a rule book on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement, which the United States, at the behest of President Donald Trump, has announced it will quit. Success, according to the conferences Polish host, will need a miracle. - More...
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-un/global-temperatures-on-track-for-3-5-degree-rise-by-2100-u-n-idUSKCN1NY186
More,
- Global Warming Prediction Sounds Alarm for Climate Fight, Bloomberg, Dec. 3, 2019
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-12-03/global-temperature-headed-toward-5-degree-increase-wmo-says
- After Hottest Decade Since Records Began, WMO Warns World May Face 5C Rise by Century's End. The impacts of the climate crisis "are real and happening now and place huge pressures on communities and countries," climate scientists said. Common Dreams, Dec. 3, 2019
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/03/after-hottest-decade-records-began-wmo-warns-world-may-face-5degc-rise-centurys-end
..As the decade comes to a close, the world's top climate scientists warned Tuesday that policymakers' continued failure to curb the warming of the planet could lead to a global temperature increase of 5 Celsius by the end of the century and put the world "nowhere near on track" to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
2019 is expected to be the second or third warmest year ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), while the past five-year and ten-year periods are "almost certain to be the highest on record."...
- A firefighter walks near a pool as a neighboring home burns in the Napa wine region in California in 2017.
Voltaire2
(12,939 posts)Luckily we have gibbonous buffoons leading much of the developed world to steer us through this crisis.