[ExI] The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

[John Grigg]

"Jochem Marotzke grew up in Cold War-era Germany, and was preoccupied, like
everyone else, with nuclear war. Diplomacy and activism were important, he
realized, but the crisis was binary: Either the bombs start falling, at
which point the marginal value of one more summit or protest falls
immediately to zero, or they don’t.
Now, as a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology,
Marotzke is working to tackle a fundamentally different crisis. Because
when it comes to the planet, no matter how bad things get, humanity will
never lose the ability to make them a little less bad.
That is a key conclusion of this week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) report
<https://email-tracking.qz.com/uni/ss/c/u0sCzvfn7U_YuwNMgEMH06jJqp64JsYGEmBHwm6sijJxmoBWKx-7iLivexN5GUurVjtusxt6IereC6Voq3ysksYGx8e17UXS-5sKObC9_ZoMLA2E8e3PzDmsM-qJjwUFtC72HJx_HaeJyneifF0cwvPlhvQFQZw_ZePT7JfOTC16Muq0pMdde76e5V-MerYu/3eg/CsOTwRxkSYiRk7GrsNkv0g/h2/_yFwQkhLzpxVvxYnQD40sermZelVOm0l3wyBGSI2N-4>,
which Marotzke helped author. It was also the takeaway most obscured by
this week’s doom-and-gloom headlines. Is climate change bad? Yes. Are many
impacts already here, and irreversible (at least for centuries)? Yes. Is it
humanity’s fault? “Unequivocally,” the report says.
Yet the report makes clear that every fraction of a degree of warming makes
a tangible difference to the frequency and severity of impacts we will
experience. Likewise, every avoided ton of CO2 emissions truly matters.
That’s scary, because it guarantees things will get worse. But it’s the
closest thing to optimism we have, because it means every action
individuals, companies, or politicians take does make a genuine difference,
and will continue to make a difference no matter what.
The IPCC report isn’t a death sentence. It’s a call to action. And it has
one thing in common with the specter of nuclear holocaust: Millions of
lives are at stake. “It’s never too late,” Marotzke says. “And there is no
point of no return.” *—Tim McDonnell*

"Jochem Marotzke grew up in Cold War-era Germany, and was preoccupied, like
everyone else, with nuclear war. Diplomacy and activism were important, he
realized, but the crisis was binary: Either the bombs start falling, at
which point the marginal value of one more summit or protest falls
immediately to zero, or they don’t.
Now, as a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology,
Marotzke is working to tackle a fundamentally different crisis. Because
when it comes to the planet, no matter how bad things get, humanity will
never lose the ability to make them a little less bad.
That is a key conclusion of this week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) report
<https://email-tracking.qz.com/uni/ss/c/u0sCzvfn7U_YuwNMgEMH06jJqp64JsYGEmBHwm6sijJxmoBWKx-7iLivexN5GUurVjtusxt6IereC6Voq3ysksYGx8e17UXS-5sKObC9_ZoMLA2E8e3PzDmsM-qJjwUFtC72HJx_HaeJyneifF0cwvPlhvQFQZw_ZePT7JfOTC16Muq0pMdde76e5V-MerYu/3eg/CsOTwRxkSYiRk7GrsNkv0g/h2/_yFwQkhLzpxVvxYnQD40sermZelVOm0l3wyBGSI2N-4>,
which Marotzke helped author. It was also the takeaway most obscured by
this week’s doom-and-gloom headlines. Is climate change bad? Yes. Are many
impacts already here, and irreversible (at least for centuries)? Yes. Is it
humanity’s fault? “Unequivocally,” the report says.
Yet the report makes clear that every fraction of a degree of warming makes
a tangible difference to the frequency and severity of impacts we will
experience. Likewise, every avoided ton of CO2 emissions truly matters.
That’s scary, because it guarantees things will get worse. But it’s the
closest thing to optimism we have, because it means every action
individuals, companies, or politicians take does make a genuine difference,
and will continue to make a difference no matter what.
The IPCC report isn’t a death sentence. It’s a call to action. And it has
one thing in common with the specter of nuclear holocaust: Millions of
lives are at stake. “It’s never too late,” Marotzke says. “And there is no
point of no return.” *—Tim McDonnell"*

https://qz.com/re/ipcc-climate-report/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20210814/e179496c/attachment-0001.htm>