This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Wednesday, 8 May 2024
Reaping the Whirlwind?
Cassandra was fated to accurately predict the future, without ever being believed. The world's climate scientists seem to be in a distinctly comparable position. Only 6% of members of the UN's respected Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) think global heating can be limited to 1.5 degrees Centigrade above Pre-Industrial levels by this Century's end. This was the somewhat arbitrary (it's not guaranteed) 'safe' rise for 'global warming'. This is what countries signed up for in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Anything above that, will have disasterous (for humans) effects on the planet's climate. Now, almost 80% of the IPCC, expect a rise of at least 2.5 degrees Centigrade. Fifty percent, predict around 3 degrees Centigrade (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature). Most members of the IPCC see a dystopian world with famines; conflicts and mass migrations, driven by heatwaves; wildfires; floods and intense storms. This is not to mention mass extinctions of other organisms. Resolutely, however, politicians; industrialists and sections of the media play their self-serving games. Short-termism rules, OK? Homo sapiens ('wise man')- pull the other!
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