The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change

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The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change



Introduction:

We stand at a precipice. The devastating effects of climate change are no longer subtle whispers in the future; they're a harsh reality unfolding before our eyes. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and biodiversity loss are undeniable evidence of a planet in distress. But what if I told you there was a window of opportunity, a crucial decade where decisive action could have significantly mitigated the crisis? This post delves into the 2000s – the decade we could have stopped climate change – exploring the missed opportunities, the scientific consensus, and the political inertia that allowed the problem to escalate to its current critical state. We’ll examine the critical warnings, the technological advancements available, and the societal shifts that could have paved a different path. Ultimately, understanding the past is crucial to forging a more sustainable future.


H2: The Scientific Consensus: A Clear and Present Danger

The early 2000s witnessed a growing scientific consensus on anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, released throughout the decade, presented overwhelming evidence linking rising greenhouse gas emissions to global warming. These reports weren't subtle; they painted a stark picture of potential future impacts, including extreme weather events, sea-level rise, and disruptions to ecosystems. The science was clear, undeniable, and widely available.

H3: The Stern Review: An Economic Wake-Up Call

The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, published in 2006, served as a pivotal moment. This comprehensive report demonstrated that the economic costs of inaction far outweighed the costs of mitigating climate change. It presented a compelling economic argument for immediate and decisive action, highlighting the long-term economic benefits of investing in renewable energy and reducing emissions. Despite its strong message, however, political will proved insufficient to translate the findings into meaningful global action.


H2: Missed Opportunities: Political Inertia and Fossil Fuel Lobbying

The 2000s were a critical decade for international climate negotiations. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, faced significant challenges in securing ratification and implementation. The absence of major emitters like the United States further weakened its effectiveness. Moreover, powerful fossil fuel lobbies actively worked to undermine climate action, spreading misinformation and delaying the transition to cleaner energy sources. This powerful lobbying exerted undue influence on political decision-making, prioritizing short-term economic gains over long-term environmental sustainability.

H3: The Rise of Renewable Energy: A Technological Turning Point

Despite the political hurdles, the 2000s witnessed significant technological advancements in renewable energy. Solar and wind power technologies experienced considerable cost reductions, making them increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. This technological progress provided a clear pathway towards a low-carbon future. However, a lack of sustained investment and supportive policies prevented the widespread adoption of these technologies at the scale required to make a significant impact.

H2: Societal Shifts and Public Awareness: A Growing Movement

The decade also saw a growing public awareness of climate change. Environmental movements gained momentum, with increasing numbers of individuals and organizations demanding action from governments and corporations. This grassroots activism played a crucial role in raising public awareness and putting pressure on policymakers to address the issue. However, this growing awareness didn't translate into the level of systemic change needed.

H2: The Legacy of Inaction: A Costly Delay

The failure to act decisively in the 2000s has left us with a far more challenging situation today. The longer we delay, the more severe and irreversible the consequences of climate change become. The window of opportunity to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as outlined in the Paris Agreement, is rapidly closing. The costs of mitigation have increased exponentially, and the risks of catastrophic climate impacts have risen dramatically.

Conclusion:

The 2000s represent a lost decade in the fight against climate change. While the scientific evidence was clear, the political will was lacking, hampered by vested interests and a failure to prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term economic gains. Understanding this missed opportunity is crucial. We must learn from the past to avoid repeating these mistakes. The urgency of the climate crisis demands immediate and decisive action, not only to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change but also to build a more sustainable and resilient future for generations to come. We cannot afford to waste another decade.


FAQs:

1. Why were the Kyoto Protocol negotiations so ineffective? The Kyoto Protocol lacked participation from major emitters like the United States, significantly weakening its impact. Furthermore, the agreement's emission reduction targets were not ambitious enough to address the scale of the problem.

2. What role did fossil fuel lobbying play in delaying climate action? Fossil fuel companies actively funded campaigns to spread misinformation about climate change and lobby against policies that would limit their profits, delaying crucial policy changes.

3. Could technological advancements in renewable energy have made a bigger difference in the 2000s? While renewable energy technology advanced significantly, a lack of substantial investment and supportive policies prevented widespread adoption at the scale needed to significantly reduce emissions.

4. How could public awareness have been more effective in driving change in the 2000s? While public awareness grew, it didn't translate into sufficiently powerful political pressure to overcome the influence of powerful vested interests and drive necessary policy changes at the national and international level.

5. What lessons can we learn from the 2000s to effectively address climate change today? The primary lesson is the critical importance of strong political will, international cooperation, and overcoming the influence of powerful vested interests that prioritize short-term profits over long-term sustainability. We must act decisively, ambitiously, and collaboratively to avoid repeating past failures.


  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Losing Earth Nathaniel Rich, 2019-04-23 By 1979, we knew all that we know now about the science of climate change – what was happening, why it was happening, and how to stop it. Over the next ten years, we had the very real opportunity to stop it. Obviously, we failed. Nathaniel Rich’s groundbreaking account of that failure – and how tantalizingly close we came to signing binding treaties that would have saved us all before the fossil fuels industry and politicians committed to anti-scientific denialism – is already a journalistic blockbuster, a full issue of the New York Times Magazine that has earned favorable comparisons to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and John Hersey’s Hiroshima. Rich has become an instant, in-demand expert and speaker. A major movie deal is already in place. It is the story, perhaps, that can shift the conversation. In the book Losing Earth, Rich is able to provide more of the context for what did – and didn’t – happen in the 1980s and, more important, is able to carry the story fully into the present day and wrestle with what those past failures mean for us in 2019. It is not just an agonizing revelation of historical missed opportunities, but a clear-eyed and eloquent assessment of how we got to now, and what we can and must do before it's truly too late.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Losing Earth Nathaniel Rich, 2020-03-03 By 1979, we knew nearly everything we understand today about climate change—including how to stop it. Over the next decade, a handful of scientists, politicians, and strategists, led by two unlikely heroes, risked their careers in a desperate, escalating campaign to convince the world to act before it was too late. Losing Earth is their story, and ours. The New York Times Magazine devoted an entire issue to Nathaniel Rich’s groundbreaking chronicle of that decade, which became an instant journalistic phenomenon—the subject of news coverage, editorials, and conversations all over the world. In its emphasis on the lives of the people who grappled with the great existential threat of our age, it made vivid the moral dimensions of our shared plight. Now expanded into book form, Losing Earth tells the human story of climate change in even richer, more intimate terms. It reveals, in previously unreported detail, the birth of climate denialism and the genesis of the fossil fuel industry’s coordinated effort to thwart climate policy through misinformation propaganda and political influence. The book carries the story into the present day, wrestling with the long shadow of our past failures and asking crucial questions about how we make sense of our past, our future, and ourselves. Like John Hersey’s Hiroshima and Jonathan Schell’s The Fate of the Earth, Losing Earth is the rarest of achievements: a riveting work of dramatic history that articulates a moral framework for understanding how we got here, and how we must go forward.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: What If We Stopped Pretending? Jonathan Franzen, 2021-01-21 The climate change is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: How to Avoid a Climate Disaster Bill Gates, 2021-02-16 In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Climate Change The Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, 2014-02-26 Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: False Alarm Bjorn Lomborg, 2020-07-14 An “essential” (Times UK) and “meticulously researched” (Forbes) book by “the skeptical environmentalist” argues that panic over climate change is causing more harm than good Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a common message: climate change is destroying the planet, and we must take drastic action immediately to stop it. Children panic about their future, and adults wonder if it is even ethical to bring new life into the world. Enough, argues bestselling author Bjorn Lomborg. Climate change is real, but it's not the apocalyptic threat that we've been told it is. Projections of Earth's imminent demise are based on bad science and even worse economics. In panic, world leaders have committed to wildly expensive but largely ineffective policies that hamper growth and crowd out more pressing investments in human capital, from immunization to education. False Alarm will convince you that everything you think about climate change is wrong -- and points the way toward making the world a vastly better, if slightly warmer, place for us all.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Pandora's Toolbox Wake Smith, 2022-03-24 Net zero emissions is only the beginning. Smith explains the need for carbon dioxide removal and even solar radiation management to preserve our societies and ecosystems.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Drawdown Paul Hawken, 2018-02-22 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER For the first time ever, an international coalition of leading researchers, scientists and policymakers has come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. All of the techniques described here - some well-known, some you may have never heard of - are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are already enacting them. From revolutionizing how we produce and consume food to educating girls in lower-income countries, these are all solutions which, if deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, could not just slow the earth's warming, but reach drawdown: the point when greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere peak and begin todecline. So what are we waiting for?
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Mayor's Tongue Nathaniel Rich, 2009-01-15 The Mayor's Tongue is a bold, vertiginous debut novel that unfolds in two narratives, one following a young man and the other an old man. The young man is Eugene Brentani, a devotee of the reclusive author and adventurer Constance Eakins, who goes to Trieste to find the girl he loves, who has in turn gone there herself to find Eakins. The old man is Mr. Schmitz, whose wife is dying, and who longs to confide in his dear friend Rutherford. But Rutherford has disappeared, and his letters, postmarked from Italy, become more and more ominous as the weeks pass. From a young writer of exceptional promise, this exhilarating novel is a meditation on the frustrations of love, the madness of mayors, the failings of language and the transformative powers of storytelling.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Future We Choose Christiana Figueres, Tom Rivett-Carnac, 2020-02-25 THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Everyone should read this book' MATT HAIG 'One of the most inspiring books I have ever read' YUVAL NOAH HARARI 'Inspirational, compassionate and clear. The time to read this is NOW' MARK RUFFALO 'Figueres and Rivett-Carnac dare to tell us how our response can create a better, fairer world' NAOMI KLEIN ***** Discover why there's hope for the planet and how we can each make a difference in the climate crisis, starting today. Humanity is not doomed, and we can and will survive. The future is ours to create: it will be shaped by who we choose to be in the coming years. The coming decade is a turning point - it is time to turn from indifference or despair and towards a stubborn, determined optimism. The Future We Choose is a passionate call to arms from former UN Executive Secretary for Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, and Tom Rivett-Carnac, senior political strategist for the Paris Agreement. Practical, optimistic and empowering, The Future We Choose shows us steps we can all take to renew our planet and create a better world beyond the climate crisis: today, tomorrow, this year and in the coming decade. The time to act is now. This book will change the way you see the world, and your place in it.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Discovery of Global Warming Spencer R. Weart, 2003 In 2001 a panel representing virtually all the world's governments and climate scientists announced that they had reached a consensus: the world was warming at a rate without precedent during at least the last ten millennia, and that warming was caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases from human activity. The consensus itself was at least a century in the making. The story of how scientists reached their conclusion--by way of unexpected twists and turns and in the face of formidable intellectual, financial, and political obstacles--is told for the first time in The Discovery of Global Warming. Spencer R. Weart lucidly explains the emerging science, introduces us to the major players, and shows us how the Earth's irreducibly complicated climate system was mirrored by the global scientific community that studied it. Unlike familiar tales of Science Triumphant, this book portrays scientists working on bits and pieces of a topic so complex that they could never achieve full certainty--yet so important to human survival that provisional answers were essential. Weart unsparingly depicts the conflicts and mistakes, and how they sometimes led to fruitful results. His book reminds us that scientists do not work in isolation, but interact in crucial ways with the political system and with the general public. The book not only reveals the history of global warming, but also analyzes the nature of modern scientific work as it confronts the most difficult questions about the Earth's future. Table of Contents: Preface 1. How Could Climate Change? 2. Discovering a Possibility 3. A Delicate System 4. A Visible Threat 5. Public Warnings 6. The Erratic Beast 7. Breaking into Politics 8. The Discovery Confirmed Reflections Milestones Notes Further Reading Index Reviews of this book: A soberly written synthesis of science and politics. --Gilbert Taylor, Booklist Reviews of this book: Charting the evolution and confirmation of the theory [of global warming], Spencer R. Weart, director of the Center for the History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics, dissects the interwoven threads of research and reveals the political and societal subtexts that colored scientists' views and the public reception their work received. --Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times Book Review Reviews of this book: It took a century for scientists to agree that gases produced by human activity were causing the world to warm up. Now, in an engaging book that reads like a detective story, physicist Weart reports the history of global warming theory, including the internal conflicts plaguing the research community and the role government has had in promoting climate studies. --Publishers Weekly Reviews of this book: It is almost two centuries since the French mathematician Jean Baptiste Fourier discovered that the Earth was far warmer than it had any right to be, given its distance from the Sun...Spencer Weart's book about how Fourier's initially inconsequential discovery finally triggered urgent debate about the future habitability of the Earth is lucid, painstaking and commendably brief, packing everything into 200 pages. --Fred Pearce, The Independent Reviews of this book: [The Discovery of Global Warming] is a well-written, well-researched and well-balanced account of the issues involved...This is not a sermon for the faithful, or verses from Revelation for the evangelicals, but a serious summary for those who like reasoned argument. Read it--and be converted. --John Emsley, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: This is a terrific book...Perhaps the finest compliment I could give this book is to report that I intend to use it instead of my own book...for my climate class. The Discovery of Global Warming is more up-to-date, better balanced historically, beautifully written and, not least important, short and to the point. I think the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] needs to enlist a few good historians like Weart for its next assessment. --Stephen H. Schneider, Nature Reviews of this book: This short, well-written book by a science historian at the American Institute of Physics adds a serious voice to the overheated debate about global warming and would serve as a great starting point for anyone who wants to better understand the issue. --Maureen Christie, American Scientist Reviews of this book: I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Spencer Weart's account provides much valuable and interesting material about how the discipline developed--not just from the perspective of climate science but also within the context of the field's relation to other scientific disciplines, the media, political trends, and even 20th-century history (particularly the Cold War). In addition, Weart has done a valuable service by recording for posterity background information on some of the key discoveries and historical figures who contributed to our present understanding of the global warming problem. --Thomas J. Crowley, Science Reviews of this book: Weart has done us all a service by bringing the discovery of global warming into a short, compendious and persuasive book for a general readership. He is especially strong on the early days and the scientific background. --Crispin Tickell, Times Higher Education Supplement A Capricious Beast Ever since the days when he had trudged around fossil lake basins in Nevada for his doctoral thesis, Wally Broecker had been interested in sudden climate shifts. The reported sudden jumps of CO2 in Greenland ice cores stimulated him to put this interest into conjunction with his oceanographic interests. The result was a surprising and important calculation. The key was what Broecker later described as a great conveyor belt'of seawater carrying heat northward. . . . The energy carried to the neighborhood of Iceland was staggering, Broecker realized, nearly a third as much as the Sun sheds upon the entire North Atlantic. If something were to shut down the conveyor, climate would change across much of the Northern Hemisphere' There was reason to believe a shutdown could happen swiftly. In many regions the consequences for climate would be spectacular. Broecker was foremost in taking this disagreeable news to the public. In 1987 he wrote that we had been treating the greenhouse effect as a 'cocktail hour curiosity,' but now 'we must view it as a threat to human beings and wildlife.' The climate system was a capricious beast, he said, and we were poking it with a sharp stick. I found the book enjoyable, thoughtful, and an excellent introduction to the history of what may be one of the most important subjects of the next one hundred years. --Clark Miller, University of Wisconsin The Discovery of Global Warming raises important scientific issues and topics and includes essential detail. Readers should be able to follow the discussion and emerge at the end with a good understanding of how scientists have developed a consensus on global warming, what it is, and what issues now face human society. --Thomas R. Dunlap, Texas A&M University
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Odds Against Tomorrow Nathaniel Rich, 2013-04-02 NEW YORK CITY, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of a cavernous office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming. As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe—ecological collapse, global war, natural disasters—he becomes obsessed by a culture's fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner, a friend with her own apocalyptic secret, who has started a commune in Maine. Then, just as Mitchell's predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo, an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost? At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller, an unexpected love story, and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear, Nathaniel Rich's Odds Against Tomorrow poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be. An NPR Best Book of 2013
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Story of More Hope Jahren, 2020-03-05 'Hope Jahren asks the central question of our time: how can we learn to live on a finite planet? The Story of More is thoughtful, informative and - above all - essential' Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, an inspiring teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, Jahren illuminates the link between human consumption habits and our imperiled planet. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions - from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles - that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases - from superstorms to rising sea levels - and the actions that all of us can take to fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a lively, personal narrative given to us in Jahren's inimitable voice, The Story of More is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The End of Nature Bill McKibben, 2022-03-31 One of the earliest warnings about climate change and one of environmentalism's lodestars 'Nature, we believe, takes forever. It moves with infinite slowness,' begins the first book to bring climate change to public attention. Interweaving lyrical observations from his life in the Adirondack Mountains with insights from the emerging science, Bill McKibben sets out the central developments not only of the environmental crisis now facing us but also the terms of our response, from policy to the fundamental, philosophical shift in our relationship with the natural world which, he argues, could save us. A moving elegy to nature in its pristine, pre-human wildness, The End of Nature is both a milestone in environmental thought, indispensable to understanding how we arrived here.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Uninhabitable Earth David Wallace-Wells, 2019-02-19 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Uninhabitable Earth hits you like a comet, with an overflow of insanely lyrical prose about our pending Armageddon.”—Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New Yorker • The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • The Economist • The Paris Review • Toronto Star • GQ • The Times Literary Supplement • The New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible—food shortages, refugee emergencies, climate wars and economic devastation. An “epoch-defining book” (The Guardian) and “this generation’s Silent Spring” (The Washington Post), The Uninhabitable Earth is both a travelogue of the near future and a meditation on how that future will look to those living through it—the ways that warming promises to transform global politics, the meaning of technology and nature in the modern world, the sustainability of capitalism and the trajectory of human progress. The Uninhabitable Earth is also an impassioned call to action. For just as the world was brought to the brink of catastrophe within the span of a lifetime, the responsibility to avoid it now belongs to a single generation—today’s. LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD “The Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a meticulously documented, white-knuckled tour through the cascading catastrophes that will soon engulf our warming planet.”—Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times “Riveting. . . . Some readers will find Mr. Wallace-Wells’s outline of possible futures alarmist. He is indeed alarmed. You should be, too.”—The Economist “Potent and evocative. . . . Wallace-Wells has resolved to offer something other than the standard narrative of climate change. . . . He avoids the ‘eerily banal language of climatology’ in favor of lush, rolling prose.”—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times “The book has potential to be this generation’s Silent Spring.”—The Washington Post “The Uninhabitable Earth, which has become a best seller, taps into the underlying emotion of the day: fear. . . . I encourage people to read this book.”—Alan Weisman, The New York Review of Books
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Great Adaptation Romain Felli, 2021-07-20 The Great Adaptation tells the story of how scientists, governments and corporations have tried to deal with the challenge that climate change poses to capitalism by promoting adaptation to the consequences of climate change, rather than combating its causes. From the 1970s neoliberal economists and ideologues have used climate change as an argument for creating more flexibility in society, that is for promoting more market-based solutions to environmental and social questions. The book unveils the political economy of this potent movement, whereby some powerful actors are thriving in the face of dangerous climate change and may even make a profit out of it
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Madhouse Effect Michael E. Mann, Tom Toles, 2016-09-27 The award-winning climate scientist Michael E. Mann and the Pulitzer Prize–winning political cartoonist Tom Toles have been on the front lines of the fight against climate denialism for most of their careers. They have witnessed the manipulation of the media by business and political interests and the unconscionable play to partisanship on issues that affect the well-being of billions. The lessons they have learned have been invaluable, inspiring this brilliant, colorful escape hatch from the madhouse of the climate wars. The Madhouse Effect portrays the intellectual pretzels into which denialists must twist logic to explain away the clear evidence that human activity has changed Earth's climate. Toles's cartoons collapse counter-scientific strategies into their biased components, helping readers see how to best strike at these fallacies. Mann's expert skills at science communication aim to restore sanity to a debate that continues to rage against widely acknowledged scientific consensus. The synergy of these two climate science crusaders enlivens the gloom and doom of so many climate-themed books—and may even convert die-hard doubters to the side of sound science.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Don't Even Think About It George Marshall, 2014-08-19 An Esquire Essential Book on Climate Change From the founder of the Climate Outreach and Information Network, a groundbreaking take on the most urgent question of our time: Why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, do we still ignore climate change? “Please read this book, and think about it.” --Bill Nye Most of us recognize that climate change is real, and yet we do nothing to stop it. What is this psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? George Marshall's search for the answers brings him face to face with Nobel Prize-winning psychologists and the activists of the Texas Tea Party; the world's leading climate scientists and the people who denounce them; liberal environmentalists and conservative evangelicals. What he discovered is that our values, assumptions, and prejudices can take on lives of their own, gaining authority as they are shared, dividing people in their wake. With engaging stories and drawing on years of his own research, Marshall argues that the answers do not lie in the things that make us different and drive us apart, but rather in what we all share: how our human brains are wired-our evolutionary origins, our perceptions of threats, our cognitive blindspots, our love of storytelling, our fear of death, and our deepest instincts to defend our family and tribe. Once we understand what excites, threatens, and motivates us, we can rethink and reimagine climate change, for it is not an impossible problem. Rather, it is one we can halt if we can make it our common purpose and common ground. Silence and inaction are the most persuasive of narratives, so we need to change the story. In the end, Don't Even Think About It is both about climate change and about the qualities that make us human and how we can grow as we deal with the greatest challenge we have ever faced.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Burning Question Mike Berners-Lee, Duncan Clark, 2013-04-15 The Burning Question reveals climate change to be the most fascinating scientific, political and social puzzle in history. It shows that carbon emissions are still accelerating upwards, following an exponential curve that goes back centuries. One reason is that saving energy is like squeezing a balloon: reductions in one place lead to increases elsewhere. Another reason is that clean energy sources don't in themselves slow the rate of fossil fuel extraction. Tackling global warming will mean persuading the world to abandon oil, coal and gas reserves worth many trillions of dollars - at least until we have the means to put carbon back in the ground. The burning question is whether that can be done. What mix of politics, psychology, economics and technology might be required? Are the energy companies massively overvalued, and how will carbon-cuts affect the global economy? Will we wake up to the threat in time? And who can do what to make it all happen?
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Eaarth Bill McKibben, 2010-04-30 Twenty years ago, in The End of Nature, Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about global warming. Those warnings went mostly unheeded; now, he argues, we need to acknowledge that we've waited too long, and that massive change is not only unavoidable but already underway. Our old familiar planet is melting, drying, acidifying, flooding and burning in ways humans have never seen. We've created a new planet, still recognisable but fundamentally different. In Eaarth, McKibben surveys the changes already taking place and considers what they will mean for our future. Adapting to our new home won't be easy. It will be expensive – and the natural resources on which our economy is built have been damaged and degraded. Our survival depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back, concentrating on essentials and creating the kinds of communities that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change – fundamental change – will be our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance. 'What I have to say about this book is very simple: read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important.'—Barbara Kingsolver 'McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him.'—Tim Flannery 'Bill McKibben foresaw the end of nature very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature's greatest treasures.'—James Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Citizen's Guide to Climate Success Mark Jaccard, 2020-02-06 Shows readers how we can all help solve the climate crisis by focusing on a few key, achievable actions.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Carbon Democracy Timothy Mitchell, 2013-06-25 “A brilliant, revisionist argument that places oil companies at the heart of 20th century history—and of the political and environmental crises we now face.” —Guardian Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy. Timothy Mitchell begins with the history of coal power to tell a radical new story about the rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable for the first time to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from the Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for the first time in history to reorganize political life around the management of something now called “the economy” and the promise of its infinite growth. The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy—the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fuelled collapse of the ecological order. In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of democracy, and the place of the Middle East in our common world.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Future Earth Eric Holthaus, 2020-06-30 The first hopeful book about climate change, The Future Earth shows readers how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. The basics of climate science are easy. We know it is entirely human-caused. Which means its solutions will be similarly human-led. In The Future Earth, leading climate change advocate and weather-related journalist Eric Holthaus (“the Rebel Nerd of Meteorology”—Rolling Stone) offers a radical vision of our future, specifically how to reverse the short- and long-term effects of climate change over the next three decades. Anchored by world-class reporting, interviews with futurists, climatologists, biologists, economists, and climate change activists, it shows what the world could look like if we implemented radical solutions on the scale of the crises we face. What could happen if we reduced carbon emissions by 50 percent in the next decade? What could living in a city look like in 2030? How could the world operate in 2040, if the proposed Green New Deal created a 100 percent net carbon-free economy in the United States? This is the book for anyone who feels overwhelmed by the current state of our environment. Hopeful and prophetic, The Future Earth invites us to imagine how we can reverse the effects of climate change in our own lifetime and encourages us to enter a deeper relationship with the earth as conscientious stewards and to re-affirm our commitment to one another in our shared humanity.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Climate Rationality Jason S. Johnston, 2021-08-19 Most environmental statutes passed since 1970 have endorsed a pragmatic or 'precautionary' principle under which the existence of a significant risk is enough to trigger regulation. At the same time, targets of such regulation have often argued on grounds of inefficiency that the associated costs outweigh any potential benefits. In this work, Jason Johnston unpacks and critiques the legal, economic, and scientific basis for precautionary climate policies pursued in the United States and in doing so sheds light on why the global warming policy debate has become increasingly bitter and disconnected from both climate science and economics. Johnston analyzes the most influential international climate science assessment organizations, the US electric power industry, and land management and renewable energy policies. Bridging sound economics and climate science, this pathbreaking book shows how the United States can efficiently adapt to a changing climate while radically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: This Changes Everything Naomi Klein, 2014-09-16 With strong first-hand reporting and an original, provocative thesis, Naomi Klein returns with this book on how the climate crisis must spur transformational political change
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Merchants of Doubt Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, 2011-10-03 The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. These scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers. Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly-some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is not settled denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. Doubt is our product, wrote one tobacco executive. These experts supplied it. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid Thor Hanson, 2022-02-03 'An original, wide-ranging and carefully researched book ... contains important lessons for humanity.' Mark Cocker, The Spectator A fascinating insight into climate change biology around the globe, as well as in our own backyards. Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is the first major book by a biologist to focus on the fascinating story of how the natural world is adjusting, adapting, and sometimes measurably evolving in response to climate change. Lyrical and thought-provoking, this book broadens the climate focus from humans to the wider lattice of life. Bestselling nature writer Thor Hanson - author of Buzz (a Radio 4 'Book of the Week') - shows us how Caribbean lizards have grown larger toe pads to grip trees more tightly during frequent hurricanes; and how the 'plasticity' of squid has allowed them to change their body size and breeding habits to cope with altered sea temperatures. Plants and animals have a great deal to teach us about the nature of what comes next, because for many of them, and also for many of us, that world is already here.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Not for Greens Ian Plimer, 2014 The processes required to make a humble stainless steel teaspoon are remarkably complicated and every stage involves risk, coal, energy, capital, international trade and finance. Stainless steel cutlery has taken thousands of years of experimentation and knowledge to evolve and the end result is that we can eat without killing ourselves with bacteria. We are in the best times to have ever lived on planet Earth and the future will only be better. All this we take for granted. Greens may have started as genuine environmentalists. Much of the green movement has now morphed into an unelected extremist political pressure group accountable to no one. Greens create problems, many of which are concocted, and provide no solutions because of a lack of basic knowledge. This book examines green policies in the light of established knowledge and shows that they are unrealistic. Policies by greens adopted by supine governments have resulted in rising costs, increased taxes, political instability, energy poverty, decreased longevity and environmental degradation and they don't achieve their ideological aims. Wind, solar and biomass energy emit more carbon dioxide than they save and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions does nothing to change climate and only empties the pocket. No stainless steel teaspoon could be made using green alternative energy. This book argues that unless the greens live sustainably in caves in the forest and use no trappings of the modern world, then they should be regarded as hypocrites and treated with the disdain they deserve.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Climate Cure Tim Flannery, 2020-11-03 An urgent and essential call to arms from one of Australia’s most respected climate scientists, Tim Flannery. A compelling and solution-focused declaration of the action required to win the climate battle, and how change must start in our board rooms and parliaments.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Weather Makers Tim Flannery, 2007-12-01 The #1 international bestseller on climate change that’s been endorsed by policy makers, scientists, writers, and energy executives around the world. Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers contributed in bringing the topic of global warming to worldwide prominence. For the first time, a scientist provided an accessible and comprehensive account of the history, current status, and future impact of climate change, writing what has been acclaimed by reviewers everywhere as the definitive book on global warming. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject. Pulling on his expertise as a scientist to discuss climate change from a historical perspective, Flannery also explains how climate change is interconnected across the planet. This edition includes a new afterword by the author. “An authoritative, scientifically accurate book on global warming that sparkles with life, clarity, and intelligence.” —The Washington Post
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Climate Stabilization Targets National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Committee on Stabilization Targets for Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations, 2011-02-11 Emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels have ushered in a new epoch where human activities will largely determine the evolution of Earth's climate. Because carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is long lived, it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which could become very severe. Emissions reductions decisions made today matter in determining impacts experienced not just over the next few decades, but in the coming centuries and millennia. According to Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia, important policy decisions can be informed by recent advances in climate science that quantify the relationships between increases in carbon dioxide and global warming, related climate changes, and resulting impacts, such as changes in streamflow, wildfires, crop productivity, extreme hot summers, and sea level rise. One way to inform these choices is to consider the projected climate changes and impacts that would occur if greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were stabilized at a particular concentration level. The book quantifies the outcomes of different stabilization targets for greenhouse gas concentrations using analyses and information drawn from the scientific literature. Although it does not recommend or justify any particular stabilization target, it does provide important scientific insights about the relationships among emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations, temperatures, and impacts. Climate Stabilization Targets emphasizes the importance of 21st century choices regarding long-term climate stabilization. It is a useful resource for scientists, educators and policy makers, among others.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The 2030 Spike Colin Mason, 2013-06-17 The clock is relentlessly ticking! Our world teeters on a knife-edge between a peaceful and prosperous future for all, and a dark winter of death and destruction that threatens to smother the light of civilization. Within 30 years, in the 2030 decade, six powerful 'drivers' will converge with unprecedented force in a statistical spike that could tear humanity apart and plunge the world into a new Dark Age. Depleted fuel supplies, massive population growth, poverty, global climate change, famine, growing water shortages and international lawlessness are on a crash course with potentially catastrophic consequences. In the face of both doomsaying and denial over the state of our world, Colin Mason cuts through the rhetoric and reams of conflicting data to muster the evidence to illustrate a broad picture of the world as it is, and our possible futures. Ultimately his message is clear; we must act decisively, collectively and immediately to alter the trajectory of humanity away from catastrophe. Offering over 100 priorities for immediate action, The 2030 Spike serves as a guidebook for humanity through the treacherous minefields and wastelands ahead to a bright, peaceful and prosperous future in which all humans have the opportunity to thrive and build a better civilization. This book is powerful and essential reading for all people concerned with the future of humanity and planet earth.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Letters to the Earth: Writing to a Planet in Crisis , 2019-11-14 A profound, powerful and moving collection of 100 letters from around the world responding to the climate crisis, introduced by Emma Thompson and lovingly illustrated by CILIP award winner Jackie Morris. ‘All power to this amazing project.’ JOANNE HARRIS ‘Makes sense of the climate crisis in a whole new way’ MAGID MAGID
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Climate Solution Mridula Ramesh, 2018-05-30 From fatal heatwaves and cruel droughts to devastating floods and fast-depleting water tables, climate change is the greatest disruptor of our time – and it can no longer be ignored. For most of us the odds seem overwhelming and solutions seem out of reach. Yet, in this forcefully argued book, climate change practitioner, teacher and investor Mridula Ramesh emphasizes that while the situation is grim, it is not without hope. Drawing on her extensive practical and investing experience, she explores myriad facets of this raging issue: why women are peculiarly affected by a warming climate; how climate change poses a security threat to the Indian state; why just focussing on green sources of power is an incomplete solution for India; how managing waste can create hundreds of thousands of urban jobs and how households can cope in a ‘Day Zero’ water situation. In doing so, she shows how climate warriors, from the cotton fields of Punjab and thriving eco start-ups in Bengaluru, to a forest guardian in Assam and the johads of Rajasthan, have employed ingenuity and initiative to adapt to the changing conditions – and sometimes reverse their shattering effects. Timely, urgent and thought-provoking, this book is an urgent call to action – and an essential manifesto for every Indian citizen to follow.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: The Long Term Impact of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide on Climate G. MacDonald, 1979
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet Philippe Tortell, 2020-04-22 Fifty years have passed since the first Earth Day, on 22 April 1970. This accessible, incisive and timely collection of essays brings together a diverse set of expert voices to examine how the Earth’s environment has changed over this past half century, and what lies in store for our planet over the coming fifty years. Earth 2020: An Insider’s Guide to a Rapidly Changing Planet responds to a public increasingly concerned about the deterioration of Earth’s natural systems, offering readers a wealth of perspectives on our shared ecological past, and on the future trajectory of planet Earth. Written by world-leading thinkers on the front-lines of global change research and policy, this multi-disciplinary collection maintains a dual focus: some essays investigate specific facets of the physical Earth system, while others explore the social, legal and political dimensions shaping the human environmental footprint. In doing so, the essays collectively highlight the urgent need for collaboration across diverse domains of expertise in addressing one of the most significant challenges facing us today. Earth 2020 is essential reading for everyone seeking a deeper understanding of the past, present and future of our planet, and the role of humanity in shaping this trajectory.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Why Evolution is True Jerry A. Coyne, 2010-01-14 For all the discussion in the media about creationism and 'Intelligent Design', virtually nothing has been said about the evidence in question - the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Yet, as this succinct and important book shows, that evidence is vast, varied, and magnificent, and drawn from many disparate fields of science. The very latest research is uncovering a stream of evidence revealing evolution in action - from the actual observation of a species splitting into two, to new fossil discoveries, to the deciphering of the evidence stored in our genome. Why Evolution is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, palaeontology, geology, molecular biology, anatomy, and development to demonstrate the 'indelible stamp' of the processes first proposed by Darwin. It is a crisp, lucid, and accessible statement that will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth of evolution.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Climate Change Science National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Committee on the Science of Climate Change, 2001-06-28 The warming of the Earth has been the subject of intense debate and concern for many scientists, policy-makers, and citizens for at least the past decade. Climate Change Science: An Analysis of Some Key Questions, a new report by a committee of the National Research Council, characterizes the global warming trend over the last 100 years, and examines what may be in store for the 21st century and the extent to which warming may be attributable to human activity.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: Climate Change The Royal Society, The National Academy of Sciences, 2020-03-26 Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth's climate. The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society and to inform critical policy debates, produced the original Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2014. It was written and reviewed by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists. This new edition, prepared by the same author team, has been updated with the most recent climate data and scientific analyses, all of which reinforce our understanding of human-caused climate change. Scientific information is a vital component for society to make informed decisions about how to reduce the magnitude of climate change and how to adapt to its impacts. This booklet serves as a key reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and others seeking authoritative answers about the current state of climate-change science.
  the decade we could have stopped climate change: End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama, 2006-03-01 Ever since its first publication in 1992, the New York Times bestselling The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Profoundly realistic and important...supremely timely and cogent...the first book to fully fathom the depth and range of the changes now sweeping through the world. —The Washington Post Book World Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change [PDF]
This post delves into the 2000s – the decade we could have stopped climate change – exploring the missed opportunities, the scientific consensus, and the political inertia that allowed the …

Climate Change 2021: Summary for All - IPCC
• Climate Change Today: what changes have already occurred and how we know humans are responsible; • Our Future Climate: what changes could happen in the future depending on the …

SEIZE THE DECADE – A PLAN TO CUT CLIMATE POLLUTION …
the pollution that fuels dangerous climate change. Seize the Decade is all about those solutions. The solutions that can collectively cut climate pollution by 75% by 2030, in line with what the …

Climate Change: Evidence & Causes 2020 - Royal Society
The impacts of climate change on people and nature are increasingly apparent. Unprecedented flooding, heat waves, and wildfires have cost billions in damages. Habitats are undergoing …

‘Our Planet, Our Future’ Statement Signed by 126 Nobel …
Jun 3, 2021 · decade is crucial: Global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by half and destruction of nature halted and reversed. An essential foundation for this transformation is to …

Is Climate Catastrophe Really 10 Years Away? - Fraser Institute
Comparisons with empirically measured data regarding climate change and greenhouse gas concentrations reveals that the computer forecast models which drive the “10-year” nar-rative …

A short guide to climate science - Royal Society
Why is climate change of concern now? All major climate changes, including natural ones, are disruptive. Past climate changes led to extinction of many species, population migrations, and …

Once melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we will see …
Once melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we will see extreme climate change within decades, study shows. February 17 2024, by René van Westen, Henk A. Dijkstra and Michael …

Seminar on the United Nations Framework Convention on …
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the primary vehicle for international negotiations addressing anthropogenic climate change. Once a year, the 194

HOW SEVERE IS A CHANGING CLIMATE AND WHY SHOULD …
Losing Earth: The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate Change. Picador, 2020. Thunberg, Greta. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Penguin Books, 2021.

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030
those on climate change, poverty eradication, food security, water and biodiversity conservation. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (hereafter the Decade) is a global effort aimed at …

State of the Science FACT SHEET - Science Council
Apr 14, 2021 · How Changing Climate Affects Extreme Events. State of the Science FACT SHEET. This summary of extreme weather and climate events was developed by NOAA …

Table of Contents - NOAA Climate.gov
1. Is the globe warming? 2. Did global warming stop in 1998? 3. Can we trust NOAA’s global temperature data record? 4. Are humans causing or contributing to global warming? 5. What is …

High-Level Thematic Debate on Delivering Climate Action: For …
KEY MESSAGES. While many economic sectors and industries have taken action to align their activities with the goals of the Paris Agreement, we continue to lag. There are four key …

Urgency and Its Downfalls: How Have We Covered Nature and …
“Human beings have altered Earth’s atmosphere through the indis-criminate burning of fossil fuels,” Rich proposes in his article. “[But] in the decade that ran from 1979 to 1989, we had an …

CLIMATE POLICY Climate policies that achieved major …
We provide a global, systematic ex post evaluation to identify policy combinations that have led to large emission reductions out of 1500 climate policies implemented between 1998 and 2022 …

Climate Change: Global Temperatu re - Department of Energy
Earthʼs temperature has risen by an average of 0.11° Fahrenheit (0.06° Celsius) per decade since 1850, or about 2° F in total. The rate of warming since 1982 is more than three times as fast: …

CLIMATE CHANGE Past climates inform our future - Science
Nov 6, 2020 · Here, we review the relevancy of paleoclimate information for climate prediction and discuss the prospects for emerging methodologies to further insights gained from past climates.

Climate Change and International Responses Increasing …
We assess that climate change will increasingly exacerbate risks to US national security interests as the physical impacts increase and geopolitical tensions mount about how to respond to the …

Losing Earth The Decade We Could Have Stopped Climate …
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AIM HIGH, GO FAST: WHY EMISSIONS NEED TO PLUMMET …
2.2 Committed (unavoidable) climate change 14 2.3 Updated estimate of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity 20 2.4 Insights from past climates 21 2.5 Carbon budget analysis 23 ... emissions needs to happen this decade. Delaying further than we have already would mean that even more rapid and disruptive action to reduce emissions is required later. ...

Agriculture and Forestry Climate Change Impacts - UK …
Climate change in the UK The UK climate is already changing. Moreover, it is extremely likely4 that the changes observed over the past few decades are part of global climate change, much of which can be attributed to human activity (e.g. the release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel consumption stations and changes in the way that land is used).

‘Our Planet, Our Future’ Statement Signed by 126 Nobel …
Jun 3, 2021 · humanity takes now. There is rising evidence that this is a decisive decade (2020-2030). Loss of nature must be stopped and deep inequality counteracted. Global emissions of greenhouse gases need to be cut by half in the decade of 2021-2030. This alone requires collective governance of the global commons — all the living and non-living systems on

FAO STRATEGY ON CLIMATE CHANGE 2022–2031 - Food …
Together we can deliver the new Strategy on Climate Change through game-changing, innovative and science-based solutions, through effective collaboration and strong ... Let us join forces to turn the ambitions set out in the Strategy for Climate Change into tangible actions and real change to achieve our collective goal of the 4 Betters: better ...

SEIZE THE DECADE - Climate Council
we have reduced climate pollution to 458 Mt-126 Mt The climate pollution we produce now: Coal, oil and gas are fuelling devastating climate impacts Climate change is hurting Australians and decisions made today will shape our kids future. Let’s seize the decade to build a clean economy and cut Australia’s climate pollution 75% by 2030.

Climate Change, Vulnerability and Social Justice - IPCC
As we have stated elsewhere (Kasperson and Kasperson 2001, 274-275): ... Over the past decade, studies of climate change have largely focussed on issues of science—how releases of greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere and interact with biogeophysical processes to alter attributes of climate. In-depth analysis of the impacts of

Our Changing Climate | Fourth National Climate …
The climate change resulting from human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide will persist for decades to millennia. Self-reinforcing cycles within the climate system have the potential to accelerate human-induced change and even ... The conditions we experience in a given place at a given time are the result of both human and natural factors.

Climate Change and Social Inequality - الأمم المتحدة
change; (b) increase in their susceptibility to damage caused by climate change; and (c) decrease in their ability to cope and recover from the damage suffered. The paper presents evidence to

Revised Estimates of the Impact of Climate Change on …
Climate change Severity of impacts We nd that rapid and inclusive development is necessary to reduce climate change vulnerability, consistent with previous ndings. In particular, we show that climate change may have signi cant impacts on global poverty incidence in this decade, possibly pulling more than 100 million people into poverty by 2030.

The Demise of the Knowledge–Action Gap in Climate Change …
in part, by knowledge gains regarding the science of climate change. The University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) has offered an online course on Climate and Climate Change (AOS 102) to undergraduates since 2013. Course content is designed to convey the physical science behind climate change. It has also evolved to include attributes toward

Climate Action Plan 2024 - assets.gov.ie
Ireland has experienced first-hand the consequences of climate change as set out in the Climate Status Report for Ireland 2020, including: All seasons have seen a rise in temperature and the annual average surface air temperature has increased by over 0.9°C in the last 120 years;

Climate change in the Townsville-Thuringowa region
have shown a clear warming trend. Our climate is already highly variable but climate change is leading to shifts beyond this natural variability. Our future climate Our climate is changing primarily because increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping heat, warming the air and oceans.

NATO Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment
Climate . change may pose a particularly difficult adaptation challenge, but NATO has already . started to respond. The Climate Change and Security Action Plan, agreed at the 2021 Brussels Summit, provides us with an ambitious but realistic blueprint for progress. We will enhance our analytical capabilities, adapt by mainstreaming climate change

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main cause of climate change in its 2011 report The Critical Decade: Climate science, risks and responses. In this special report, The Critical Decade: Climate change and health, we examine the effects that climate change has on human health and wellbeing. Our aim is to provide up-to-date information on the challenges to human health in a changing

THE LOST YEARS: COUNTING THE COSTS OF CLIMATE
was supporting the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility. A year earlier in 2011, the Labor Government had established the Climate Commission to provide expert advice and information on climate change to the Australian public. In its first report titled ‘The Critical Decade’, the Climate Commission said that unless Australia

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tudents have likely heard about melting polar ice and threats to polar wildlife caused by climate change. In the last decade, we have witnessed unprecedented melting of our polar ice. Data from NASA scientists show that Arctic sea ice has decreased substantially from the long-term average, and Antarctica is also losing ice mass in certain regions,

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Losing Earth The Decade We Could Have Stopped Cli Kick the Habit Alex Kirby,2008 This publication is written by experts from many disciplines ... Uninhabitable Earth is the most terrifying book I have ever read. Its subject is climate change, and its method is scientific, but its mode is Old Testament. The book is a

How companies can adapt to climate change - McKinsey
One complication is that on the national and inter-Adapt climate change national level, climate-change policies often change, sometimes with the speed of an election result. That makes it difficult for businesses to make long-term investment and operating decisions. Businesses can, however, take the initiative in managing regulation risk.

Geography - bolderacademy.co.uk
A scary walkthrough of the impacts of Climate Change as world temperatures increase by 1 degree through to 6 degrees. Mark Lynas delivers a vital account of the future of our ... ‘1979 to 1989, The Decade we Could have Stopped Climate Change’ Royal Geographical Society. GUARDIAN ARTICLE ‘Amazon is Net Carbon Producer’, Ane Alencar

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gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty (SR1.5); Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in

Global Transport and Climate Change - UNFCCC
to climate change and a growing public health concern. Black carbon is a key component in fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which can penetrate deep inside the lungs, contributing to premature mortality and a range of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.21 from international flights increased 3.8% annually between 2010

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REGARDING - United States Senate Committee on Energy and …
need to answer how authorizing exports beyond these unprecedented volumes could impact affordability for U.S. consumers and competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing. Second, our understanding of CO2 and methane’s effect on climate change have only become sharper, and …

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climate change. Importantly, these responses, in turn, pose further threats and risks of their own to birds.v Bird Species and Climate Change The Global Status Report Summary This summary outlines the findings of “Birds Species and Climate Change”, a report to WWF by Climate Risk Pty, which provides a global analysis of current and future

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The 2020s are a Decisive Decade for climate action. Over the next ten years, we have an opportunity to limit global temperature rise and hasten a just ... To avert the worst impacts of climate change, science demands that we halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. While doing so, there needs to be radical regeneration of forests ...

Chapter 31. Testifying to Congress: 1982 & 1986
Jun 18, 2019 · Earth, The decade we almost stopped climate change. A tragedy in two acts, which formed the entire issue of . New York Times Magazine. on 5 August 2018. It is true that my office contained 40-50 piles of papers, each with a piece of …

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Aug 31, 2020 · managed systems, and climate change is driving a universal redistribution of life on Earth (Pecl et al, 2017). Within communication, we have seen a significant rise in environmental research, with ‘climate change’ as the most popular keyword in environmental communication research by a significant margin, empirically marking its importance

ettin the aenda in researh Comment - Nature
wasted decade means for the climate pact made in Paris. T he past decade of political failure on climate change has cost us all dear. It has shrunk the time left for action by two-thirds. In 2010, the world thought it had 30 years to halve global emissions of greenhouse gases. Today, we know that this must happen in ten years to minimize the

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate …
Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change By Nathaniel Rich Editor’s Note This narrative by Nathaniel Rich is a work of history, addressing the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989: the decisive decade when humankind first came to a broad understanding of the causes and dangers of climate change.

Agriculture and climate change - McKinsey & Company
This report offers a perspective on how farming could change to reduce the emissions intensity of food production. Building on more than a decade of McKinsey analysis of GHG abatement, we have identified the top 25 measures to reduce on-farm emissions and organized them into a marginal abatement cost curve

Climate change in Queensland - Queensland Government
have shown a clear warming trend. Our climate is already highly variable but climate change is leading to shifts beyond this natural variability. Our future climate Our climate is changing primarily because increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are trapping heat, warming the air and oceans.

Urgency and Its Downfalls: How Have We Covered Nature …
to Nathaniel Rich’s long-form piece “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change.” This marked a signicant shift from 2013, when the newspaper of record dismantled the nine-person Environment Desk established in 2009 to cover the climate catastrophe. 1

LITERATURE REVIEW ON ALIGNING CLIMATE CHANGE …
Dec 8, 2019 · 1.1 CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION (CCA) Any process that causes adjustments to a climate system—from a volcanic eruption to a cyclical change in solar activity—could be described as cre-ating “climate change”. 16 However, the phrase is most often used today as shorthand for anthropogenic climate change—in other words, climate change

The Business Case for Climate Action - KPMG
of society have joined together to pursue a common purpose to achieve success. We should see the climate catastrophe as no different to any other global crisis that has occurred historically. At the 2020 World Economic Forum Annual General Meeting at Davos, climate change was by far the most important issue discussed, with a

Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health
the limited time we have left to prepare. Shyam Bishen Head, Centre for Health and Healthcare; Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum Sam Glick Global Leader of Health and Life Sciences, Oliver Wyman Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health January 2024 Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health3

The science of climate change
2 | The science of climate change page conTenTs 3 Foreword 4 Summary 6 Q1: What is climate change? 8 Q2: How has climate changed? 12 Q3: Are human activities causing climate change? 16 Q4: How do we expect climate to evolve in the future? 20 Q5: How are extreme events changing? 22 Q6: How are sea levels changing? 24 Q7: What are the impacts of climate …

Why should we care about climate change? - Yale Program …
do about climate change. The data we collect helps us understand the underlying psychological, cultural, and political factors that influence different individuals. We use these insights to help leaders, the media, and educators like you better inform the public about climate change.

Measures Taken in Egypt to Combat - UNFCCC
Climate Change Footsteps Evolution 1994 UNFCCC Ratification 1990 FAR SAR 1995 1996 1998 CCU Climate Change Unit EEAA 1992 UNFCCC 1988 1997 UNFCCC Signing CCC Climate Change Committee EEAA (ministerial) Vision Reduce risks & seize opportunities in light of SDS 2030 Mission LED, Increase adaptive capacity & resilience

What Climate Change Means for Texas - U.S. Environmental …
The sources of information about climate and the impacts of climate change in this publication are: the national climate assessments by the U.S. Global Change Research . Program, synthesis and assessment products by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and EPA’s

HOW SEVERE IS A CHANGING CLIMATE AND WHY SHOULD …
The Atlas of a Changing Climate: Our Evolving Planet Visualized with More than 100 Maps, Charts, and Infographics. Timber Press, 2021. Earle, Steven. A Brief History of the Earth’s Climate: Everyone’s Guide to the Science of Climate Change. New Society, 2022. Herman, Gail. What Is Climate Change? Penguin Workshop, 2022. Leonard, Jill.

THE SCIENTIFIC FUNDAMENTALS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
UN CC: Learn Resource Guide for Advanced Learning on the Scientific Fundamentals of Climate Change 4 1.4 Introduction to the Scientific Fundamentals of Climate Change The climate system is a complex, interactive system consisting of the atmosphere, land surface, snow and ice, oceans and other bodies of water, and living elements.

climate change in the indian mind 2022 - Yale Program on …
India is among the countries most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Climate change has already begun . to alter growing seasons in India (Mani et al., 2018), and with almost 50% of Indians working in agriculture and . other climate sensitive sectors (Chand & Singh, 2022), the damage to productivity and health is significant (Mani

Preparing Wildlife for Climate Change: How Far Have We …
ameliorate the potential effects of climate change? For managing wildlife, a practical answer often requires local, evidence‐based solutions. After more than 2 decades of research, we sought to understand how far we have come in providing local solutions to climate change within the purview of most wildlife managers. Absent progress in this