Stopping Climate Change
There is still time to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2030 but time is quickly running out. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body responsible containing 195 members for assessing the science related to climate change. Even though they don't conduct their own research, they go through thousands of scientific papers each year in order "to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks." They are very open and transparent about the process. They recently published a report with 17 in-depth chapters in their Sixth Assessment Report titled Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/. Although it is a very high level report, it shows that climate change due to humans is real, but we can limit the effects of it if we implement policies around this goal.
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This Carbon Clock (left), published by Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, how much time we have left "to limit global warming to a maximum 1.5 decrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F) and 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees F), respectively." The carbon dioxide budget is referring to how much of the gas the atmosphere can absorb before the average global temperature warms to above the respective goal. The 2 degrees scenario refers to the Paris Climate Agreement, agreed by 195 countries in 2015, to limit global warming by this temperature by this temperature by 2050. www.mcc-berlin.net/en/research/co2-budget.html
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Scientists warn that if the Earth continues to warm past 2 degrees Celsius, then the consequences will be catastrophic and there will be no turning back. But luckily, there has been much research into this issue and there are many solutions proposed that if followed, would benefit the world. Project Drawdown, the world's leading resource for climate solutions, has found many ways to help stop global warming. Their mission is to: "help the world reach 'drawdown'—the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible." www.drawdown.org
Some Solutions:
Forest Restoration: Project Drawdown suggests 2 types of forests that need to be restored: tropical and temperate. Tropical Forests once covered 12 percent of the world's land mass, now it is only 5 percent that they cover. This has been mainly due to "extensive clearing, fragmentation, degradation, and depletion of biodiversity." Temperate forests, on the other hand, have not been threatened by the same issues. Instead, 99% of these forests have "been altered in some way - timbered, converted to agriculture, or disrupted by development." Even though these forests can recover, it would take centuries to do so. Because of photosynthesis, the more trees there are in the world, the less carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere. An easy way to help out is to donate to #teamtrees, an organization started by YouTube content creators Mr. Beast and Mark Rober, where each dollar donated is a tree planted. teamtrees.org
Links to Drawdown: www.drawdown.org/solutions/temperate-forest-restoration, www.drawdown.org/solutions/tropical-forest-restoration |