ORLANDO, Fla. – The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued part 1 of its Sixth Assessment Report. The report says that it appears the Earth is now hotter than it has been any time since the last Ice Age more than 125,000 years ago.
The future temperatures are only going to get hotter if we, as humans, continue to pump carbon into our atmosphere.
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The report says we are looking at big problems related to the warming. Here on Forecasting Change, we have been addressing the “new normal” we are living in with our heavy rains, increased pests problems, sea level rise and droughts.
The report says these problems could easily be with us for decades if not centuries. The rise in sea level does not simply go away even if we do well in slowing the warming.
By now, most of you are aware of the dire warning of warming the global temperature by 1.5 degrees C. This new report says we are on track to hit that point by the year 2040. That is now only 19 years away. The IPCC says even if we do cut emissions as fast as we can, the approach of the breaking point can not be stopped.
Our best hopes to prevent catastrophic problems is to stop putting carbon emissions into the atmosphere. We can also mitigate damages by preparing for the changes. In future Forecasting Change discussions, we will address both of those issues.