SYLVIA McKEOWN: SA and world cannot afford to ignore UN’s climate-change warning
It’s hard to care about impending famine while trying to put out state-capture fires, or standing in a hall full of Florida voters who believe science is out to get their production lines
Monday will go down in the history books one way or another. It will either be known as the day the world finally sprung into action, or the day we ignored at our own peril. At a meeting of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, a group of scientists convened by the UN essentially told us we’re screwed. If greenhouse-gas emissions continue at their current rate, the atmosphere will warm as much as 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030. They then went on to describe 2040 in words akin to dystopian literature, where we will face worsening food shortages and increased poverty. What is left will be subjected to increased wildfires and floods, not to mention coral reefs dying off en masse. This means we have officially reached the time in history where most of the global population alive today will be alive to see the start of our species’ potential extinction. Locally, if you’ve been feeling the heat already it’s not just in your head. Non-profit organisation Carbon Brief, u...
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