The facts about climate and energy. Part a. The climate crisis is happening and man is causing it

The climate crisis is a hot topic - with myths and lies circulating widely. The UN website has compiled essential facts that will help deal with misinformation and disinformation and build support for urgent action

Fact: Climate change is happening

Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth. Changes in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, a warming ocean and more frequent and intense extreme weather events are just some of the changes already affecting millions of people. (IPCC)

Climate change can affect our health, our ability to grow food, housing, safety and work. Some of us are more vulnerable to climate impacts, such as people living in small island developing states. Threats such as sea level rise and salt water intrusion have progressed to the point where entire communities have been forced to relocate. In the future, the number of people displaced by climate change is expected to increase.

Changes in climate are extensive, fast and intensifying, and some changes, such as sea level rise or the melting of ice sheets, are irreversible for hundreds to thousands of years. (IPCC)

Fact: Climate change is caused by human activity

Natural changes in solar activity or large volcanic eruptions have caused ancient changes in Earth's temperatures and weather patterns, but over the past 200 years, these natural factors have not significantly affected global temperatures. Today, it is human activity that causes climate change, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. (IPCC)

Burning fossil fuels creates a blanket of pollution, trapping the sun's heat on Earth and raising global temperatures. (Global warming leads to other changes such as droughts, water shortages, severe fires, sea level rise, floods, polar ice melting, severe storms and a decrease in biodiversity.)

The more this pollution, like carbon dioxide (CO2), accumulates in the atmosphere, the more heat from the sun is trapped, the more it warms the Earth. There is a strong connection between cumulative CO2 emissions and the increase in global surface temperature. (IPCC)

The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased at an unprecedented rate since the industrial revolution, when manual labor began to be replaced by machinery powered by coal, oil and gas. Today, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is about 50% higher than in 1750, far beyond the natural changes of at least the last 800,000 years. (IPCC)

Fact: Scientists agree that humans are responsible for climate change

Numerous independent studies over the past 19 years have found that between 90 and 100 percent of scientists agree that humans are responsible for climate change, with most studies finding a 97 percent consensus.

Research from hypnosis 2021 Find greater than 99% consensus on human-caused climate change in the peer-reviewed scientific literature (reviewed by Export in the same field before publication) – a level of certainty similar to that of the theory of evolution.

The synthesis report of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in March 2023, confirmed unequivocally that human activity is the decisive cause of climate change. The IPCC's comprehensive assessments are written by hundreds of leading scientists from around the world, with contributions from thousands of experts, and are approved by the governments of every country in the world.

Fact: Every fraction of a degree of warming matters

With every increase in global warming, extreme heat and rain events become more frequent and intense. (IPCC)

Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, from human activity are responsible for about 1.1 degrees Celsius of warming since 1850-1900. (IPCC) This has already caused significant changes in the climate, including more extreme weather events, which have caused widespread damage to people and nature. (IPCC)

If global warming exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, there will be more heat waves, longer hot seasons and shorter cold seasons. At 2°C of global warming, extreme heat will more often cross the critical tolerance threshold with devastating impacts on agriculture and human health. Increasing changes in wetness and dryness, winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans, will affect different areas in different ways. (IPCC)

Fact: The climate is changing faster than humans, plants and animals can adapt

If global temperatures continue to rise, adapting to climate change will become increasingly difficult, especially for poorer countries. A small island, for example, may become uninhabitable due to rising sea levels and a lack of sufficient fresh water. In such a case, residents may have no choice but to abandon their homes. (IPCC)

Adaptation alone cannot keep up with the impacts of climate change. Adaptation is essential to saving lives and livelihoods, but the ability of humans to adapt to climate change is not unlimited. (insights)

The sea level rise that inundates coastal communities and extreme heat waves unbearable for the human body are examples of "severe" limits to our ability to adapt. (UNFCCC)

As global warming increases, losses and damages will increase and more human and natural systems will reach the limit of their ability to adapt. Many species and ecosystems are already near or beyond their adaptive limits. (IPCC).

Continue in the coming days.

מקור

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• IPCC: We are halfway to the extinction of all life on Earth
• Al Gore and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) won the Nobel Peace Prize
• IPCC: despite measures to reduce greenhouse gases, warming continues, acceleration is required in the fight against the climate crisis
• The climate crisis will not be alleviated until we reduce consumption, and not just look for substitutes
• One up to the right