A new report from IPCC gives strong warnings that the impacts of climate change may be irreversible albeit there could be a small window of period where we can dodge the ultimate damages of the climate crisis.

This is the second instalment of three reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, authored by the world’s highly reputable climate change scientists. The first report was published in August 2021, which illuminated the weight of the effects of human induced climate change. The new report highlights the courses, impacts and solutions of climate change and reveals how climate change is affecting all living things on the only habitable planet, Earth. The report gives a clear warning that the humanity and all other living things may not be able to adapt to the effects of climate change as the situation intensifies. The report finds that more than 40% of human beings are susceptible to the negative impacts of climate change. The report also adds that we could avoid the ultimate impacts of climate change if we keep the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The co-chair of the report, Professor Debra Roberts explains “Our report clearly indicates that places where people live and work may cease to exist, that ecosystems and species that we've all grown up with and that are central to our cultures and inform our languages may disappear. So this is really a key moment. Our report points out very clearly, this is the decade of action, if we are going to turn things around.

Dr. Helen Adams, a lead author of the report, from Kings College London was more optimistic as she expressed that the future depends on us and not the climate.

The report reveals that geography is a key component on how much it affects people from around the world. As much as 15 times more people from parts of Africa, South Asia and Central and South America died from floods, droughts and storms compared to other regions around the world in the period between 2010 and 2020.

Nature and ecological systems are not immune to the impacts of rising temperatures as they, too, face the disastrous consequences of human induced climate change. Vegetations are giving in to drought while coral reefs are being bleached and dying from increasing temperatures. The reports adds that continued temperature rise may lead to complete loss of ecosystems around coastal areas as rising sea levels may fully submerge them. The report estimates that a billion more people will be exposed to the climate hazards specific to coastal areas within the next couple of decades if current emission trends continues. In addition, the report warns that 50% of humanity will suffer from life threatening conditions brought on by increased heat and humidity, if temperatures rise to 1.7 and 1.8 degrees Celsius above the 1850s level.

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, commented that he is very certain on who is to be blamed. He added that leaders are not taking responsibility in combatting climate change and he “accused” the world’s biggest polluters with guilty of arson, as they are burning our home.

The report also highlights the impact of climate change on our health. Diseases may spread rampantly, especially mosquito borne dengue fever, to billions by the end of the century. Besides our physical health, the report highlight the impacts of climate change on our mental health for the first time. We may endure stress and trauma caused by loss of livelihood and culture brought on by climate change.

The report expands to how climate change affects other living organisms on Earth. Approximately 50% of the living organisms studied in this report are already migrating to higher grounds or towards the poles, where the temperature can be drastically more forgiving. Around 14% of the living organisms are the risk of extinction if the global temperature rise increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius while up to 29% of species may become extinct if the temperature rise to 3.0 degrees Celsius. There may be 2 times more risk of extinction for species living in biodiversity hotspots if the temperature rise hits 2.0 degrees Celsius and the risk level increases by up to 10 times if the global temperature rise to 3.0 degrees Celsius.

There are certain schools of thought amongst scientists that it will be tolerable if the temperatures rise above 1.5 degrees Celsius, for a brief period, if the temperatures fall below quickly right after. The report points out that this approach is flawed.

Linda Schneider, from the Heinrich Boll Institute, who was an observer at the IPCC discussions said "In any overshoot there's an increasing risk of hitting tipping points and triggering feedback, in the climate system, like permafrost thawing. That would make it a lot more difficult, it could make it impossible to get back below 1.5C.”

The report is unfavourable of new technologies like carbon capture and radical ideas such as deflecting sunlight, citing that these ideas might exasperate the climate crisis further. Instead, the report advocates for a climate resilient development of societies.

Prof Brian O'Neill, an IPCC coordinating lead author from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the US said “If our development pathways are ones in which health systems don't improve much, education doesn't improve much, our economies aren't growing very fast and inequality remains a big problem, that's a world where a particular amount of climate change is going to have a really big impact.” On the contrary, Professor O’Neill added that humanity will be less susceptible to the impacts of climate change if we develop as an equitable society with less gaps in terms of education, health and poverty amongst the societies and communities around the world.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60525591#main-heading