|THE MONTHLY EPISODE - THE DEN|
From the North Pole to the South Pole the world is becoming warmer. In the vulnerable polar regions, the global average surface temperature has increased since 1906 by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit. And the repercussions of rising temperatures don't expect a long future—the effects of global warming are now emerging.
Many people consider global warming and climate change as synonymous, while scientists prefer to use the term 'climate change' to describe the complex changes presently impacting the weather and climate systems of our world. Average temperature not just increases but extreme weather events, wildlife changes and habitats, rising sea levels, and a variety of other consequences are all part of climate change.
UN Report on climate change
A new report was issued on 9 August by the UN appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which summarised the latest scientific evidence on climate change. Some key catches are here.
Blaming Humans
The report says nearly all the heating from pre-industrial periods was caused by heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane. A large part of the problem comes from people who use fossil fuels – coal, oil, wood, and natural gas.
Dire consequences
The more than 3,000-page research says that glacier melting and already accelerated sea level. Wild weather - from storms to heat waves – is also becoming worse and more prevalent.
Additional warming is locked in because of the already emitted greenhouse gases into the Atmosphere by humans. Even if the emissions are vastly reduced, certain changes for centuries will be "irreversible," the report says.
Paris Goals
Almost all the countries signed the Paris climate agreement in 2015 aimed at limiting global warming, by the year 2100, to 2°C (3.6°F) higher than the pre-industrial average. The agreement states that the rise would ideally only be 1.5°C (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
But more than 200 authors examined 5 scenarios to conclude, in the 2030s - sooner than in predictions before, that everyone will see the world cross the 1.5-degree threshold. Temperatures will also increase by 2 degrees Celsius in three of these scenarios.
Some Hope
While many of the reports' forecasts showed a dreadful picture of people's impact on the planet and the implications that will arise, the IPCC found also that "low probability" for so-called tip points, such as catastrophic collapsing ice sheets and the steep downturn in ocean currents, is impossible to exclude.
Record breaking rain
In August, for the first time on record, the summit of Greenland received rain and not snow, just as temperatures in the region soared higher than freezing for the third time in less than ten years. The occurrence caused concern since experts show that Greenland is quickly warming up.
The melting incident spanned 337,000 square miles, and the sheet accumulated 7 billion tonnes of rain within three days (Greenland's ice sheet is 656,000 square miles wide). The rain mixed to high temperatures led to a massive melting at the top, adding volumes to fears of fast ice melting, thereby increasing the worldwide level of the sea.
Why is Greenland’s rain a cause of worry?
One of the most catastrophic melting events of the previous decade last month, when Greenland lost 8.5 billion tonnes of surface mass in one day, the third such event in the past decade. The climate report "code-red" released by the UN found that the burning of fossil fuels led to Greenland melting in the last 20 years.
Conclusion - No Nature No future The 'safe' limit for global warming has been declared by scientists as 1.5°C. If temperatures rise, reasonably harmful alterations in the natural environment will influence the way human lives are. This will happen before the end of the century by many experts, who anticipate increases of 3°C or more.
Countries are being urged to take objectives by the middle of this century to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases to a net-zero. In other words, all emissions would be balanced if an equal amount were absorbed by planting trees. This is the belief that the most severe impacts of climate change will be prevented by halting fast temperature growth.