A new report from the UN’s top body of climate scientists is warning that temperatures will go beyond a key danger point unless countries worldwide cut greenhouse emissions faster than they are currently committed to doing.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations, accusing them of stoking global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.
“It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world,” he said.
Governments agreed in the 2015 Paris accord to keep global warming well below
2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) this century, ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Yet temperatures have already increased by over 1.1C (2F) since pre-industrial times, resulting in measurable increases in disasters such flash floods, extreme heat, more intense hurricanes and longer-burning wildfires, putting human lives in danger and costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars to confront.
“Projected global emissions from (national pledges) place limiting global warming to
1.5C beyond reach and make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to 2C,” the panel said. In other words, the report’s co-chair, James Skea of Imperial College London, told The Associated Press: “If we continue acting as we are now, we’re not even going to limit warming to 2 degrees, never mind 1.5 degrees.”
Ongoing investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and clearing large swaths of forest for agriculture undermine the massive curbs in emissions needed to meet the Paris goal, the report found. Emissions in 2019 were about 12% higher than they were in 2010 and 54% higher than in 1990, said Skea.
The rate of growth has slowed from 2.1% per year in the early part of this century
to 1.3% per year between 2010 and 2019, the report’s authors said. But they voiced “high confidence” that unless countries step up their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions,
the planet will on average be 2.4C to 3.5C (4.3 to 6.3F) warmer by the end of the century — a level experts say is sure to cause severe impacts for much of the world’s population.
“Limiting warming to 1.5C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before
2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030,” he said. Such cuts would be hard to achieve without drastic, economy-wide measures, the panel acknowledged. It’s more likely that the world will pass 1.5C and efforts will then need to be made to bring temperatures back down again, including by removing vast amounts of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas — from the atmosphere.
Many experts say this is unfeasible with current technologies, and even if it could be
done it would be far costlier than preventing the emissions in the first place. The report, numbering thousands of pages, doesn’t single out individual countries for blame. But the figures show much of the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere was released by rich countries that were the first to burn coal, oil and gas beginning with the industrial revolution.
The U.N. panel said 40% of emissions since then came from Europe and North America. Just over 12% can be attributed to East Asia, which includes China. But China took over the position as world’s top emissions polluter from the United States in the mid-2000s.
Many countries and companies have used recent climate meetings to paint rosy pictures
of their emissions-cutting efforts — while continuing to invest in fossil fuels and other polluting activities, Guterres charged. “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing but doing another,” he said. “Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”
The report isn’t without some hope, however.
Its authors highlight myriad ways in which the world can be brought back on track
to 2C or even, with great effort, return to 1.5C after that threshold has been passed. This could require measures such as the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere with natural or artificial means, but also potentially risky technologies such as pumping aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight.
Among the solutions recommended are a rapid shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy such as increasingly cheap solar and wind power, the electrification of transport, less meat consumption, more efficient use of resources and massive financial support for poor countries unable to pay for such measures without help.
The situation is as if humanity has “gone to the doctor in a very unhealthy condition,”
and the doctor is saying “you need to change, it’s a radical change. If you don’t, you’re in trouble,” said report co-author Pete Smith, a professor of soils and global change at the University Aberdeen.
“It’s not like a diet,” Smith said. “It is a fundamental lifestyle change. It’s changing what you eat, how much you eat and getting a more active lifestyle.” One move often described as “low-hanging fruit” by scientists is to plug methane leaks from mines, wells and landfills that release the potent but short-lived greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
A pact forged between the United States and China at last year’s U.N. climate conference in Glasgow aims to do just that. “The big message we’ve got (is that) human activities got us into this problem and human agency can actually get us out of it again,” said Skea, the panel’s co-chair.
The panel’s reports have become increasingly blunt since the first one was published in 1990, and the latest may be the last before the planet passes 1.5C of warming, Skea told
the AP. Last August, it said climate change caused by humans was “an established fact” and warned that some effects of global warming are already inevitable.
In late February, the panel published a report that outlined how further temperature increases will multiply the risk of floods, storms, drought and heat waves worldwide.
Still, the British government’s former chief science adviser David King, who wasn’t involved in writing the report, said there are too optimistic assumptions about how much CO2 the world can afford to emit.
“We don’t actually have a remaining carbon budget to burn,” said King, who now chairs the Climate Crisis Advisory Group. “It’s just the reverse. We’ve already done too much in the way of putting greenhouse gases up there,” he said, arguing that the IPCC’s calculation omits new risks and potentially self-reinforcing effects already happening, such as the increased absorption of heat into the oceans from sea ice loss and the release of methane as permafrost melts.
Such warnings were echoed by U.N. chief Guterres, citing scientists’ warnings that
the planet is moving “perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate impacts.” “But high-emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye; they are adding fuel to the flames,” he said, calling for an end to further coal, oil and gas extraction.
“Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
Vulnerable nations said the report showed big polluters have to step up their efforts before the next U.N. climate summit in Egypt this fall. “We are looking to the G-20, to the world’s biggest emitters, to set ambitious targets ahead of COP27, and to reach those targets – by investing in renewables, cutting out coal and fossil fuel subsidies,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands.
“It’s long past time to deliver on promises made.”
Climate change: Another challenge in a troubled world.
By Vivian Blevins – April 13, 2022
Vivian B. Blevins, Ph.D., a graduate of The Ohio State University, served as a
community college president for 15 years in Kentucky, Texas, California, and Missouri before returning to Ohio to teach telecommunication employees from around the country and students at Edison State Community College and to work with veterans. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints nor the independent activities of the author.
A headline in the April 5, 2022, issue of the Dayton Daily News indicated “U.N.:
Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world.’” When I was president of Lee College from 1986 to 1992 in Baytown, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Exxon had one of the world’s largest refineries there as well as a chemical plant.
I still recall the smells and the air pollutants dispersed regularly (and I’m sure in compliance with federal standards) and my son Lance’s discovery of malformed small animal life in the streams in his neighborhood. I met frequently with other presidents in the Gulf Coast area, and early on I made the mistake of saying, “This area is obviously heavily polluted because I can smell it in the air.”
In response, a very powerful and long-established president said, “Dr. Blevins, that is
the smell of money,” And he gave me a look that said, “Keep your mouth shut and you might be successful here. Otherwise….” I had recently completed my first presidency
in the coalfields of southeastern Kentucky, so I certainly understood the need for a
major source of employment which mining coal provided there.
I knew as well that coal mining was responsible for the success of all the support
services — and jobs — that an industry requires: schools, grocery stores, pharmacies, libraries, and medical facilities.
I also understood the dangers of coal mining, not only in terms of mining accidents but silicosis, aka Black Lung, as I had watched my father-in-law die from the disease and knew that kind of smothering death is a dear price to pay for a job in mining coal.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterra’s bleak comments, based on a report
from its intergovernmental climate panel, is a subject difficult for many Americans to even notice among the news stories on the war in Ukraine, the Supreme Court wrangling, and food/gas prices. According to Associated Press reporters Frank Jordans and Seth Berenstein, Gueterra indicated that governments and corporations have “stoked global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.” They quote him as saying of the multi-page report, “It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track for an unlivable world.”
It’s difficult, if not impossible unless they are directly impacted, for Americans to think
of the “increases in disasters such as flash floods, extreme heat, more intense hurricanes and longer=burning wildfires.”
This is true to acknowledge even if we know our employment is contributing to global warming. Yes, we care about persons impacted by these natural disasters — or are they man-made disasters? We pray for them and donate to the myriad groups that attempt to alleviate their personal and financial pain even as we wonder why our income tax dollars are not being used to address these issues in a competent fashion.
Jordans and Berenstein write that “the solutions recommended are a rapid shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy such as increasingly cheap solar and wind power, the electrification of transport, less meat consumption, more efficient use of resources and massive support for poor countries unable to pay for such measures
without help.”
As a pragmatist, a problem solver, I believe these are good suggestions and doable with leadership and money, but I would follow them up with a few questions: Who is going to be paying for the “massive support for poor countries?” We are aware of tax loopholes and outright fraud that keep some individuals and corporations from paying any taxes or only token amounts as we faithfully pay our own local tax bills that have rather long itemized lists for schools, parks, libraries, cities, etc.
· We need such lists with our state and federal tax bills.
Are your lips snarled yet, or are you laughing aloud? We’d like to have electric cars, but since the cost is prohibitive for most of us, I guess we’ll just need to keep driving our old gas-guzzling, polluting ones.
· Will retraining be provided and by whom to move Americans from current employment in fields that support fossil fuels? Will these individuals be relocated at a distance from their extended families and support systems?
· Yes, we can eat less meat and that is easy for those of us who are not fans of meat.
What about those who earn their living raising beef cattle, hogs, and other meat sources?
What about those who process meat for the marketplace? How will we provide for the uprooting, retraining, and placement for these groups?
· We should all be able to get on board with “more efficient use of resources.” We control the thermostats in our homes; our use of water; our buying choices of food, clothing, furniture, vehicles; our use of gasoline to a degree unless our jobs absolutely require travel and carpooling is impossible; the size of homes we build/buy; the items we recycle, etc.
A solution posed is the development of a way to remove “vast amounts of carbon dioxide- the main greenhouse gas- from the atmosphere.” Maybe some of these folks who are currently spending millions on little sight-seeing trips to outer space could pay appropriate taxes, and we could get scientists collaborating on this proposed solution.
As a start, I think we all could do what we can and spend less time bickering and more time using our critical thinking skills to solve problems in our homes, our workplaces,
our cities, our states, and our country.
In conclusion, I’ve recently been rereading Ray Bradbury’s stories in The Illustrated Man, and the predictions in his fiction seem strangely timely.
In this July 20, 2013 file photo, a plant that produces ethanol
is next to a cornfield near Coon Rapids, Iowa.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
New process should be significantly more efficient, too
By Kevin Spak
Scientists: We Can Make Ethanol Without Corn
(NEWSER) – Could ethanol someday essentially be produced out of thin air?
A group of scientists has published research in Nature detailing a new method of making ethanol out of carbon monoxide gas, instead of corn or sugarcane, Reuters reports.
Researchers saturated water with the gas, then zapped it with a novel device featuring two electrodes, one made of what they’re calling “oxide-derived copper,” to convert it into fuel. “I emphasize that these are just laboratory experiments today,” lead researcher Matthew Kanan says. He expects to have a prototype device ready in two to three years.
The environmental implications are profound. Critics of ethanol say it drives up food prices and consumes loads of land and water. It can take more than 800 gallons of water to grow enough corn to make 3 gallons of ethanol, Phys.org points out.
What’s more, researchers envision a two-step process in which the carbon monoxide is derived from carbon dioxide in the air, providing an “economic incentive” for scrubbing carbon from the atmosphere, the MIT Technology Review reports. The new process could also work on a far smaller scale than biomass methods; the Review envisions rooftop solar panels generating fuel that’s kept in water heater-sized tanks.
(More on the toll ethanol takes on the environment here.)
Ethanol: It’s Not What You Think it is, or is it? – Part 1
Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson – 1803-1882
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.
The foe long since in silence slept.
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.
On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.
Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.
MBS threatened to move Saudi Arabia closer to Russia and China to punish Biden for ostracizing him, report says (msn.com)
Biden torched for doubling down on inflation blame game: ‘You can’t message a disaster,’ Brenberg says (msn.com)
BLM silent when confronted with data showing massive 2020 spike in Black murders victims (msn.com)
The House playing field is coming into focus. And it’s not a pretty picture for Democrats
Catastrophic Results Ahead: UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’
There’s Something Different About Clouds in Antarctica, And It Could Be Important
This city has seen the biggest reduction in snowfall over the years, data shows
To be a great power, here’s the stance China should take with Russia (msn.com)
UN Warns Earth ‘Firmly on Track Toward an Unlivable World’ – Search (bing.com)
Abbott’s border policy cost the U.S. almost $9 billion in just 10 days (msn.com)
Democrats Blew It On Immigration, Now They’re Making It Worse (msn.com)
A 4 billion-year-old comet 80 miles wide is headed toward Earth (msn.com)
The Memo: Left and right accuse Biden of failing to meet the moment (msn.com)
Canada’s inflation rate jumps to new 31-year high of 6.7% (msn.com)
Putin Threatens World With New Nuclear-Capable Missile (msn.com)
Europeans are terrified of nuclear war — and should be (msn.com)
Los Angeles progressives are being mugged by reality (msn.com)
Coastal cities are sinking faster than sea-level rise (msn.com)
Watch the World Economy Crumble (msn.com)
‼FORMER NATO ANALYST CHALLENGES SOME OF THE GLOBALISTS’ CLAIMS + LIES ABOUT THE 2014–2022 UNDECLARED WAR BETWEEN GLOBALIST UKRAINE (a loyal NWO puppet of the KAMALA–Biden Globalist Regime)
AND ANTI–GLOBALIST RUSSIA
– –Pray for Peace!
– –‼- ——- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEIFwLKlq1Q
Lindsey Stirling in the snow