14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced that, according to the findings of a new report, the scientific community was 95% sure that climate change and global warming were man-made.
Specifically, said phenomena appear to be due to the fact that, over the years, human society has released whopping amounts of greenhouse gases into our planet's atmosphere.
The specialists who pieced together the report explain that, according to evidence at hand, putting a leash on climate change and limiting global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is only possible if measures to drastically reduce greenhouse gases emissions are implemented immediately.
By the looks of it, global warming can be limited to said levels if human society manages to emit no more than 840 gigatons of carbon by the end of the century, Business Green tells us.
The problem is that, by the year 2011, 531 gigatons of carbon had already worked their way into our planet's atmosphere. Therefore, it’s understandable why some might doubt that human society will in fact manage to curb global warming.
“To stay below 2˚C, we cannot emit more than 1,000bn tonnes of carbon, of which already 54 per cent has been emitted,” Thomas Stocker, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told the press.
He further argued that, all things considered, increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will foster extreme weather manifestations.
“Heat waves are very likely to occur more frequently and last longer. As the Earth warms, we expect to see currently wet regions receiving more rainfall, and dry regions receiving less, although there will be exceptions,” Thomas Stocker said.
Commenting on the findings of this report, UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey pointed out that, “Without urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions this warming will continue, with potentially dangerous impacts upon our societies and economy.”
“This strengthens the case for international leaders to work for an ambitious, legally binding global agreement in 2015 to cut carbon emissions,” he added.