The risk to fisheries would be lower. The main ways to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to: Its easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve. Things are heating up, but, heedless of the gradually worsening conditions around them, the frogs stay put. Dr. Leiserowitz also points out that we're in the midst of a record-setting hurricane season, which will continue for another two months. That slower rate of rising water would mean that people living in island nations and along coastlines would have more time to adapt. This is often by design fashion and technology companies, for example, will release far more products than are realistically needed. Wildlife Habitat Plants and animals at risk of losing more than half of their habitats 1.5C 6% of insects 8% of plants 4% of vertebrates* 2C 18% of insects Tens of thousands of school strikers and people from all walks of life have taken to the streets demanding a solution to the climate emergency. It's no fun to be a Cassandratrust me!but as motivation for getting your gums flapping on this, he points out how effective the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements have been. This, too, shall not pass. A recent New York . RESTORE ECOSYSTEMS. Because coral reefs are amazing Finding Nemo or Dory may become harder as their beautiful homes crumble under the stress of our changing climate. Decreasing the consumtion of meat, or even growing your own food, is incredibly helpful for our planet. In Paris in 2015, world leaders from 197 countries pledged to put people first and reduce their countries greenhouse gas emissions. They need to take into consideration what we have said when they're making key policy decisions. We also will need to rely on carbon removalwhether thats as low-tech as planting trees or using new technology like direct air capture that can suck CO2 from the atmosphere. Your information is safe and secure with us read our privacy policy. And people need the dots connected for them, too, Dr. Leiserowitz says. (this is the emissions count we need to stay within according to the Paris agreement). The 2015 agreement states that that balanced diets featuring plant-based and sustainably produced . By 2040,"extreme" water shortages will be "ubiquitous" west of Missouri, but the danger is already here. It should be troubling enough that temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting, and Arctic sea ice is disappearing so fast that walruses often lounge about on land. Scientists aren't yet certain how disease-carrying rodents, such as rats and mice, are responding, but one thing is clear: Animals and plants are migrating to new areas and coming into contact with species theyve never encountered. Climate change; Image source, Getty Images. Our message of systemic change instead of climate change does not seem to have reached them yet . The world is already 1.2C warmer than pre-industrial times and every fraction of a degree counts. No one can say how much we need to thwart rising temperatures to keep this melting to a trickle. But ultimately, she says, they find themselves grieving for a future thats no longer possible. By leaving your car in your garage and using public transportation, you are able to help with the pollution in a really easy way. Climate Adaptation. The fossil fuel industry spends a tremendous amount of money lobbying and funding lawmakers, so it's important to do your research into which politicians and policies are propped up by these dollars. This is because photosynthesising plants draw down carbon dioxide as they grow, locking it away in soils. Given what we know about the threats that climate change poses to humans, we must take swift action. Waterborne human viruses may spread. And we havent even touched on the literal price of this destruction. Last week, a new study in the journal Science highlighted the role forests could play in tackling climate change. Fewer ecosystems would be irreversibly lost. But we already have the answers, now its a question of making them happen. And for many countries around the world, including the UK, climate change is having more and more of a negative impact on people. When permafrost melts, it releases carbon dioxide and more-potent methane, making climate change worse. Areas like sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean would still suffer from droughts, but farms would be able to grow more food than they could with 2 degrees of warming. When CO2 and other greenhouse gases trap heat that would otherwise escape Earth's atmosphere, the planet's temperature rises. These industries are knowingly putting money over the future of our planet and the safety of its people. "Grieving that other, better future [we thought we had] opens up space for a different story of self, a different perspective on who you are," Dr. Klein Salamon says. Rapidly changing ecosystems are also giving viruses unprecedented opportunities to evolve. While the latest round of Paris climate pledges this past year still fall well short, they are an improvement on pledges five years ago: they put the world on track for a 2.4C rise by the end of the century, rather than 2.7C. Reducing car use, switching to electric vehicles and minimising plane travel will not only help stop climate change, it will reduce air pollution too. Power your home with clean, renewable energy. 01/06/2021. Climate change is happening now, and its the most serious threat to life on our planet. At 1.5 degrees of warming instead of 2 degrees, there would be a lower risk of extreme hot days that can lead to deaths. Eat fewer or smaller portions of meat, especially red meat, which has the largest environmental impact, and reduce dairy products or switch them for non-dairy alternatives . The beginnings of change are underway, from plans to ban the sale of gas and diesel cars in countries like France and India to corporations shifting to 100% renewable electricity. These remote Inca ruins rival Machu Picchu. Listen to some of the brightest names in science and technology talk about the ideas and breakthroughs shaping our world. But as global demand slows for whale meat, his business may be doomed anyway. We don't really know the benefits." He says, however, that the chance of a catastrophic outcome should be enough . There are, of course, the West Coast's deadly firesthe worst ever on record in America, and fire season hasn't even technically begunwhich have displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and made the air unbreathable for millions. Why we need to stop climate change now? Small choices make a big difference. All rights reserved. The best scientific evidence we have shows that our world is rapidly heating. Antarcticas Thwaites Ice Shelf is rapidly changing as temperatures rise. Protecting oceans and the life in them is ultimately a way to protect ourselves from climate change. President Trump has aimed to undo much of the Obama administration's policy on energy and climate. To limit global warming to around 1.5C (2.7F), the IPCC report insisted that global greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak "before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030". More people on Earth will mean increased greenhouse gases unless global leaders find ways to curb them. To work, all of these solutions need strong international cooperation between governments and businesses, including the most polluting sectors. The Paris agreement committed to limit warming to well below 2 degrees, and pursue the even harder goal to limit it to 1.5 degrees. The pot is boiling, and we all need to jump to action. But the truth is that this is accelerating," Dr. Klein Salamon says. "We are already paying the cost, and that can be in terms of impacts on our health, or on our property, but it's also showing up in your insurance and in lost wages, and so on and so forth," Dr. Leiserowitz says. Limiting it to 2C is better than 2.5C, but better than both of these is keeping it below 1.5C. Business leaders must take action to tackle climate change both for business, humanitarian and planetary benefits. On the opposite side of the globe there's another looming issue, but this one remains buried undergroundat least for now. Communities in the Pacific Islands are facing sea level rises and more extreme weather. If governments act swiftly on the promises they made in the Paris climate agreement, and implement the solutions now, theres, still hope of avoiding the worst consequences of climate change, Greenpeace Environmental Trust (Charity No. Droughts, meanwhile, threaten our access to water. The oceans are warming and the water is becoming more acidic, causing mass coral die-offs and the loss of breeding grounds for sea creatures. On the heels of the recent report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change the US government National Climate Report, WWF's Lou Leonard explains why these climate talks are more critical now than ever. In 2015, world leaders signed a major treaty called the Paris agreement, to put these solutions into practice. Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. Meanwhile, ordinary people have blocked tankers and fracking rigs, letting everyone know that renewable energy is the answer to fossil fuels. One-half a degree may not sound like a big deal, but the effects we're now experiencing from the warming that's already occurred (the aforementioned fires, floods, heat waves, and more) will not get just a little worse in the next decade, theyll get a whole lot worse. Its easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve. However, the scientific community has . A warmer climate increases public health challenges like heat aggravated illnesses, increases in vector borne diseases, and decreased access to safe water and food. We need to make to make major changes in transportation, buildings, industry, and how we use land. And that brings us to the issue of disease. Maybe I'm here to be a part of the solution." Climate change is happening now, and its the most serious threat to life on our planet. According to Dr. Leiserowitz, this is the most important thing you can do this year. Despite the effects of climate change becoming more and more obvious, big polluting corporations the ones responsible for the majority of carbon emissions continue to carry on drilling for and burning fossil fuels. Mike Linenberger / NREL. The problem: Once Thwaites goes completely it would likely destabilize other sections of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, triggering a far more massive melt. When that permafrost melts, the underlying plants decompose, releasing carbon dioxide and more-potent methane in great quantities that can worsen climate change. Please be respectful of copyright. It caused billions of dollars worth of destruction to farms, damaging 43 percent of Iowa's corn and soybean crops. And when you reach this stage, its important not to let that paralyze you. President Donald Trump's administration has rolled back a significant number of climate protections and shows no signs of shifting course on its environmental policies. To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don't forget to include your name and location). he natural world is very good at cleaning up our emissions, but we need to look after it. The summit marks the most significant meeting on climate change since leaders signed the Paris Agreement in 2015. Folks should factor climate change into how they vote. Burning wood emits large amounts of carbon for each unit of energy it produces, and forests take decades to regrow and absorb that carbon . But temperature is not the only problem. Planting trees in the right places or giving land back to nature through rewilding schemes is a good place to start. The new report explains why going that far is critical, based on a summary of recent research that shows that the impacts at 2 degrees are much worse than previously understood. Closer to home, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that since 2000, there's been an "extraordinary" increase in high-tide flooding along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States while sea level rise is eroding coastlines and sinking communities wherever the water meets the land. But this requires immediate action, on both a large-scale and personal level. The 2018 report encouraged world leaders to make climate change a priority. We need to cut yearly global emissions roughly in half by 2030 compared to 2010 levels to stay on track to limit temperature rise to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, but current Paris climate pledges put us on track for emissions to be 16 per cent higher in 2030 than in 2010. It's going suck, and people are going to die, and it's going to cause a lot of damage, but we can get through it," Dr. Leiserowitz says. Theres certainly things that well need to invest in more to develop the next generation of solutions. By the end of the century, we could add almost 4 billion more. The term 'climate change' describes changes to the Earth's climate - our worldwide weather patterns and long-term average temperatures. Why the climate challenge needs congressional action. Because both forests and oceans play vitally important roles in regulating our climate, increasing the natural ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help stop global warming. according to britain's stern report, stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at 550 parts per million-twice pre-industrial levels, a level at which most believe there is already a higher probability of major climate disruptions-would require stopping the global growth in emissions by 2020 and reducing emissions by 2.5 percent (Not-fun-at-all fact: There have been so many storms in 2020, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has run out of names.) Just last week, scientists revealed that Alaska alone could lose 24 percent of its permafrost by 2100. While we can't undo the 1.5C temperature rise already set in stone, we can mediate further temperature increases, averting a planet that looks like something out of Mad Max. But while reducing consumption of these products might be hard, its most certainly worth it. We take the security of your data seriously. This points out that every fraction of a degree really does matter.. But if we don't act with haste, the collapse could be well underway by the end of this century. Your official excuse to add "OOD" (ahem, out of doors) to your cal. Fortunately, there are plenty of solutions to climate change, they are well-understood. Read our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The main ways to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to: Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Iceland's last whaler has no plans to stop. Reuse, repair, recycle to reduce landfill. And then there's the opposite of drought: Disruptive, economically devastating, and deadly floods are occurring at unprecedented rates. We asked scientists to identify what worries them the most. But exactly when is hard to pin down.". However, if temperatures increase more than thatwhich climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon, PhD, founder and executive director of The Climate Mobilization advocacy organization, tells me is likely without an immediate shift in behaviorconditions will become exponentially less survivable. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries. Renewable energy is one of the most effective tools we have in the fight against climate change, and there is every reason to believe it will succeed. Rapid departures from that climate would likely exceed the adaptive capacity that we and other living things possess, and cause significant consequent disruption in our world. They are often on the front lines, facing down deforestation or kicking out fossil fuel industries that want to put their water supplies at risk from oil spills. About 100 giant solar panel factories must be built by 2025 for the world to . Weve also called out the UK government for their failure to act fast enough on the climate emergency. Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. A zero-carbon-emissions energy system will rely mostly on low-cost solar electricity, experts say. We know what needs to be done about it. However, farmers are poised to play a significant role in addressing climate change. The faster we do this, the less damage we will cause to our world and our way of life. That global warming trend is increasingly disrupting our climate the average weather over many years. What are we going to do about it? 1. Crop-damaging pathogens are spreading north, threatening food security. In the last 100 years, California's sea level rose just nine inches. Currently, 20 percent of the country lives under extremely high or high water stress, and that number is expected to leap to 30-44 percent by 2040. As Sir David Attenborough said in 2021: Global CO2 emissions may need to peak around 2020. Antarctica's South Dakota-sized Thwaites Glacier has dwindled so substantially in recent decades that it is now held in place by a weak tongue of ice. These include technologies like solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power. You can opt out at any time. Do we really know what climate change will do to our planet? Both Dr. Leiserowitz and Dr. Klein Salamon would like to have better news for us. You canopt out at any time. Reducing overall consumption in more wealthy countries can help put less strain on the planet. Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas - and the more that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get. Summers between 1 and 6C warmer Summers up to 60% drier, depending on the region Hot summer days between 4 and 7C warmer All these changes would see increasingly difficult living conditions in. To Counter Climate Change, We Need to Stop Burning Things. They believe it's real; they see the evidence of it. From changing how we get our energy to limiting deforestation, here are some of the key solutions to climate change. Nope, says Dr. Leiserowitz. Fortunately, there are always things that we can do to fight against climate change. Each year that the global economy fails to decarbonize at the required rate, the two-degree goal becomes more difficult to achieve., Still, Cleetus says that we have most of the technology we need to make the change. "We know that the risk of extreme heat has already gone up as a result of the 1 degree of global warming that's already happened," says Noah Diffenbaugh, a geoscientist and senior fellow at. The government can help households heat our homes in a green way such as by insulating walls and roofs and switching away from oil or gas boilers to heat pumps. 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