{"id":45917,"date":"2022-02-28T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatechangenews.com\/?p=45917"},"modified":"2022-02-28T11:01:39","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:01:39","slug":"un-report-shows-us-human-costs-of-climate-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.climatechangenews.com\/2022\/02\/28\/un-report-shows-us-human-costs-of-climate-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"UN report shows us human costs of climate failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday\u2019s report from the second working group (WGII) of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the most exhaustive assessment of climate risks and humankind\u2019s ability to adapt to them ever undertaken.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is at once a withering indictment and an industrious guide, admonishing our reckless treatment of nature while offering practical solutions to avoid the worst consequences of our actions.<\/span><\/p>\n

At its heart is a plea, unprecedented in urgency and scale, from the world\u2019s leading climate scientists to the governments of Earth: transform how we live now or face an unliveable future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists, perhaps particularly climate scientists, are cautious by nature, bound by research norms to \u201c<\/span>err on the side of least drama<\/span><\/a>\u201d. While previous IPCC assessment reports did not shy away from the risks posed by climate change, many of their predictions were couched in the realm of the hypothetical. Given the variability of models and less-than-complete observational datasets, this circumspect approach was, at the time, the correct one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assessment Report Six (AR6) dispenses with hypotheticals, offering the most sure-footed evaluation yet of how we have already changed our climate beyond many ecosystems\u2019 ability to cope.<\/span><\/p>\n

IPCC:<\/strong> Five takeaways from the UN’s 2022 climate impacts report<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While the introduction to 2014\u2019s Fifth Assessment (AR5)<\/a> warns \u201cclimate change poses risks for human and natural systems\u201d, a summary of Monday\u2019s report upgrades that to “has caused widespread adverse impacts and related losses and damages to nature and people\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where AR5 was vague – \u201csome impacts on human systems have also been attributed to climate change\u201d – AR6 is direct: \u201cClimate change has caused impacts on human health, livelihoods and key infrastructure\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The possible perils raised by the IPCC in 2014 are coming to pass. AR5\u2019s summary contains 54 references to \u201cpotential\u201d or \u201cpotentially\u201d. In Monday’s WGII summary, it’s down to 21. In many cases, what was \u201cprojected\u201d less than a decade ago has now become \u201cunavoidable\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

As data proliferates and as observation techniques and modeling become ever more sophisticated, scientists have more information than ever to draw upon and state, with unrivaled authority, that a climate emergency is unfolding all around us. And more data points from the past and present mean more solid foundations upon which to build future scenarios.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n