With the black death, where one in three of the population died,
we did not know how it happened, how it spread, so we were not responsible.
With climate change we do know and so we are responsible.
For heatwaves, our options are now between bad or terrible.
Many people around the world are already paying the ultimate price of heatwaves,
and while models suggest that this is likely to continue, it could be much worse if emissions are not considerably reduced.
The human body can only function within a narrow range of core body temperatures around 37oC. Heatwaves pose a considerable risk to human life because hot weather,
aggravated with high humidity, can raise body temperature, leading to life threatening conditions.
This is extremely urgent because these things are now happening much more often
and – in aggregate – it is clearly because of climate change.
We can see the fingerprints of climate change on local extremes.
No one should be in the slightest surprised that we are seeing very serious heatwaves and associated impacts in many parts of the world.
The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle.
We are seeing them play out in real time and what is happening this summer is a perfect example of that.
The Earth’s climate is changing due to human activity. We need to reduce the emissions that enter the atmosphere.
FIFA takes its environmental responsibility very seriously. As part of our twofold strategy,
FIFA and the Local Organising Committee will offset all of their own operational emissions
and, through the climate action campaign launched today,
we will also support and engage with fans by neutralising the emissions of those who join us.
Factory farming is responsible for most of the air, water,
and land pollution—that disproportionately affects our poor communities as well. ...
So we get to make decisions three times a day, what we do with our planet, and you can make a difference
by even once a day or once a week choosing not to eat animals or animal products.
Tropical cyclones over land have slowed down 20 percent in the Atlantic, 30 percent in the western North Pacific, and 19 percent in the Australian region.
These trends are almost certainly increasing local rainfall totals and freshwater flooding, which is associated with very high mortality risk.
We recommend four widely applicable high-impact (i.e. low emissions) actions with the potential to contribute to
systemic change and substantially reduce annual personal emissions: having one fewer child (an average for developed countries of 58.6?tonnes CO2-equivalent (tCO2e) emission reductions per year), living car-free (2.4 tCO2e saved per year),
avoiding airplane travel (1.6 tCO2e saved per roundtrip transatlantic flight) and eating a plant-based diet (0.8 tCO2e saved per year).
Our analysis suggests that, contrary to investor expectations,
the stranding of fossil fuels assets may happen even without new climate policies.
This suggests a carbon bubble is forming and it is likely to burst.
For too long, global climate policy has been seen as a prisoner’s dilemma game,
where some nations can do nothing and get a ‘free ride’ on the efforts of others.
Our results show this is no longer the case.
Our study suggests that human-induced global warming of 2°C may trigger other Earth system processes, often called “feedbacks”, that can drive further warming - even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases.
What we do not know yet is whether the climate system can be safely 'parked' near 2°C
above preindustrial levels, as the Paris Agreement envisages.
Or if it will, once pushed so far, slip down the slope towards a hothouse planet.
Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if “Hothouse Earth” becomes the reality.
We know that we only have the possibility of avoiding a looming climate catastrophe
if people like us refuse to give up.
While you work to meet the challenge of climate change, I beg of you—don’t forget nature.
Because today, the destruction of nature accounts
for more global emissions than all the cars and trucks in the world.
Weather Is Not Climate. But climate affects weather
In the UK, fracking for fossil fuels was given the green light,
plans were announced for a huge new road in the south-east,
incentives for electric vehicles withered, the expansion of Heathrow airport
is still going ahead and Gatwick airport is trying to expand too by bringing a back-up runway into use.
It’s like seeing a sign that says “Danger: vertical cliff drop”
and pulling on your best running shoes to take a flying leap.
The chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero.
Global warming poses a far greater emergency than, say, Islamist terrorism.
Yet because it is a long-term threat with no galvanising event equivalent
to Pearl Harbour or 9/11.
We had 28 years of abject failure on ClimateChange by people with no hair,
grey hair or dyed hair. We’ve actively chosen to fail.
Delivering on the Paris Agreement is far more challenging than most scientists and politicians will admit.
The next generation has to suck the CO2 out of the air. Not us.
We are passing responsibility to our children.
