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The world's leading climate scientists just pushed the alarm button.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 

 includes sobering warning language. If we don't act to cut earth's greenhouse gas emissions by 45-percent by 2030, climate consequences will begin to cascade in as few as 12 years.

https://twitter.com/IPCC_CH/status/1049115914476478464

Earth's global temperature has already risen about 1-degree C (1.8 degrees F) from pre-industrial times. This latest IPCC report highlights the difference in climate impacts between a global temperature rise of 1.5-degrees C and 2-degrees C.  At our current rate of emissions, the earth will likely reach the 1.5-degree C warming threshold in as soon as 12 years.

https://twitter.com/IPCC_CH/status/1049140073797578752

Here's a good take on why half a degree C can make a difference.

https://twitter.com/BernadetteWoods/status/1049134920088608774

Dramatic GHG emission reductions will be needed in the next 5-10 years to stave off the riskiest climate impacts.

https://twitter.com/IPCC_CH/status/1049113146361860097

If there's an optimistic way to read the report it might be this. The changes we need to make are daunting but doable. And getting even part of the way there can reap huge economic and societal benefits.

growth in climate solutions-related technology

risk of trillions of dollars in coastal real estate

 and infrastructure looms if changes are not made. The economic shock waves from the next superstorm surge on higher sea levels are growing. Climate change is 

 to recalculate catastrophic risk models.

I'll have more coverage on this latest report with perspective from local climate scientists Thursday at 4:20 pm on Climate Cast.

Weather and Climate News

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Paul Huttner

Author

Climate consequences are far more costly than action.

IPCC Report: Act now or face dramatic climate consequences by 2030

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