Life in some locations on the planet is rapidly reaching the point where it will be too hot for the species that live there to survive, international climate experts said in a report Monday.
“With climate change, some parts of the planet will become uninhabitable,” said German scientist Hans-Otto Pörtner, co-chair of Working Group II for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produced the report released in Berlin.
The report assesses scientific literature documenting the devastating effects of human-caused climate change on society and ecosystems worldwide.
The group studied the vulnerability of people and ecosystems to the changing climate and how adaptation could help reduce the risks, said Pörtner and co-chair Deborah Roberts of South Africa.
“Human-induced climate change, including more frequent and intense extreme events, has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people, beyond natural climate variability,” the report said.
‘Ultimate injustice’:World leaders, climate experts react to grave United Nations report
Urgent action is needed to curb rising temperatures and limit the effects climate change is already having on physical and mental health and well-being, the panel concluded. Some of the anticipated consequences won’t be prevented, but the authors emphasized swift and significant action could help stave off the worst ones.
The IPCC was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988 to provide scientific assessments on climate change and its implications and risks.
The assessments, released every six to seven years, are meant to provide governments around the world with information to develop climate policies.
The intergovernmental panel is in the midst of its sixth assessment.
Monday’s report, prepared by 270 top scientists from 67 countries, builds on a report released last summer by the panel’s Working Group I, which made headlines for its bleak warning of a “code red for humanity.”
HAWAII’S CLIMATE CRISIS:As Hawaii declares climate crisis, schools hope Indigenous knowledge will save the islands
‘WORST IS YET TO COME’:Disastrous future ahead for millions worldwide due to climate change, report warns
Hoesung Lee, chair of the IPCC, said Monday’s report is a “dire warning about the consequences of inaction. It shows that climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our well-being and a healthy planet.”
Increased heat waves, droughts and floods are already exceeding plants’ and animals’ tolerance thresholds, driving mass mortalities in species such as trees and corals, according to the report.
HEAT RECORD:The past seven years have been Earth’s hottest on record and there’s no signs of ‘slowing down’
And it’s not just ecosystems and weather being affected by the warming.
Human consequences are being documented around the globe, said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor in the department of global health and a lead author of a chapter on health, well-being and communities.
People are suffering and dying from climate change, Ebi said, and rising temperatures are harming pregnancy outcomes.
Sherilee Harper, a lead author on the North American chapter and an associate professor at the University of Alberta’s public health school, said she was personally struck by the effect climate change already is having on the “physical and mental health of many Americans.”
The report highlights a “pressing need to ramp up adaptation,” said Adelle Thomas, a senior Caribbean research associate at Climate Analytics and one of the authors of the report’s summary for policymakers and a chapter on key risks.
‘PAST POINT OF NO RETURN’:Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero still won’t stop global warming, study says
Several authors speaking on a call on Sunday weren’t without hope, and the report presents options for quick action to avert the worst consequences.
There are multiple pathways communities, countries and the world can pursue to achieve climate-resilient development, but the need to act now is “urgent,” said Edward Carr, director of Clark University’s department of international development, community and the environment and a lead author of a chapter on climate resilient development.
“The window for implementing system transitions is narrowing,” Carr said. “We’ve already eliminated some possible pathways because of our past choices.”
Existing development patterns, combined with climate change, are leading the world away from sustainable development, Carr said.
SEA LEVEL RISE: Climate change could push a century’s worth of sea rise in US by 2050, report says
Some of the harm to well-being already is accelerating and can’t be prevented, the authors said.
Even if global warming is limited to the goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius, human life, safety and livelihoods across North America will be placed at risk from sea level rise, severe storms and hurricanes, especially in coastal areas, the report said.
The increasingly intense storms “combined with sea-level rise will result in losses and damages, despite our best efforts to adapt,” Thomas said. “And unfortunately, these negative impacts of climate change have disproportionate effects on those that are least able to respond: the poorest and most vulnerable communities.”
DOWNPOURS: How a summer of extreme weather reveals a stunning shift in the way rain falls in America.
Without limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the risks to North Americans are expected to intensify rapidly, Harper said. It would result in “irreversible changes to ecosystems, mounting damage to infrastructure and housing, and really stress economic sectors and disrupt livelihoods, mental health, physical health and safety.”
Delays in climate action wrought by misinformation about climate change science have made the need to act even more urgent, Harper said. “That’s led to increasing uncertainty and slowed the recognition of the risks.”
In remarks earlier in February, Pörtner concluded the scientific evidence is unequivocal: “Climate change is a threat to human well-being and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a livable future.”
![Surviving 2nd wave of corona](https://voguewellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/How-to-survive-the-2nd-wave-of-corona-2.jpg)
COVID-19
Surviving The 2nd Wave of Corona
‘This too shall pass away’ this famous Persian adage seems to be defeating us again and again in the case of COVID-19. Despite every effort