Do it! Do it now! That is the unambiguous and uncompromising message from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on March 20, 2023. Going merrily along as we have been doing will by 2035 be too late.
The result will be more and more frequent serious, sometimes catastrophic weather the likes of which both in frequency and severity we have not experienced previously. Severe storms, hurricanes, typhoons, coastal flooding in some regions, drought in others leading to a fall in agricultural output, will put life at risk with the prospect of starvation a high probability for some.
So what can we do? It's the same old story -- humans have to end their profligate ways.
We must cut back on eating beef; in fact all red meats. As was once said ... if cows were a country, it
would be the third most polluting on earth. Chewing the cud releases
potent methane, much worse than CO2. And while
pork production may cause less pollution than beef, it is still
significantly higher than growing grains, legumes or vegetables.
Moreover, should everyone adopt a Mediterranean diet, then approximately
3 gigatons
(Gts) of CO2 would be reduced.
The
world as a whole emitted 51Gts of CO2 equivalent gases in 2016. A
continuation of this with existing climate policies would lead to a
catastrophic 5 degrees Fahrenheit rise in mean global temperature by
2100. Climate scientists inform us that these emissions would need to be halved
by 2030 if we wish to limit warming to 2.7 degrees F -- approximately
half the temperature rise for half the emissions.
The most important takeaway from the report is the fact of our reliance on fossil fuels, and that every CO2 reduction scenario necessitates a cutback in their use. There are alternatives of course, but unfortunately none at present to meet current needs.
One
of our worst polluters is the automobile and some countries are already
doing something about them. The UK has outlawed the sale of new gas
and diesel cars after 2030 plus hybrids with a back-up internal
combustion engine by 2035. Plans are afoot for setting up charging
stations to prepare for an all-electric vehicle future that includes
large trucks.
Thus a multi-pronged approach could be visualized as one of altering the landscape through laws as well as individual behavior by persuasion and incentives.
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