IPCC report 2021: ‘Cost of inaction keeps mounting’ says Biden amid ‘irreversible’ sea level rise warning

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Watch live as IPCC publishes landmark climate report warning time is running out to save planet 2021-08-09 at 08:01

An authoritative and sweeping new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned the world is running out of time to make drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and avert devastating climate breakdown.

The report, authored by 234 scientists in 66 countries, found “it is more likely than not” that the world will reach 1.5C sometime over the next 20 years. And far greater global warming is possible if little is done to tackle rapidly rising emissions. Temperatures currently stand at around 1.2C above pre-industrial levels.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the report, published on Monday, a “code red for humanity”.

He warned: “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible.”

The report is clear that some consequences of the climate crisis are already locked in. It is “virtually certain” that global sea levels will continue to rise this century.

Sea levels will “remain elevated for thousands of years” as a result of ocean warming and melting ice sheets, the report warns. However it is still within our power to make a monumental difference to sea levels by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“Beyond 2050, sea level projections become increasingly sensitive to the emission choices we are making today,” said Dr Bob Kopp, a lead author of the chapter addressing sea level rise, and director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Rutgers University.

Key points

• Our full story on the landmark IPCC report
• No surprises in IPCC report, says Thunberg
• ‘We are monitoring our own extinction’

[9 August 2021 16:02 · Sam Webb]

Climate change denialists owe us an apology, writes Tom Peck

Prominent climate change deniers like Boris Johnson and Jeremy Clarkson have now come around to the truth - but what has their dithering cost us?

The Independent Political Sketch Writer Tom Peck writes: “This moment of emergency could have been called any time in the last 40 years.

“It has come to pass now only because the evidence is sufficient to overwhelm the usual stubborn fools whose lot in life is to always be wrong about everything, issue some kind of personal mea culpa far beyond the point at which it is too late, and then move on to the next thing to be wrong about.”

Read more here.

[9 August 2021 16:28 · Sam Webb]

Erin Brokovich: ‘We’re dumb'

Climate activist Erin Brockovich has issued a forthright statement on the IPCC report:

We're dumb. We allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking that digging stuff out of the ground to burn wouldn't come at a cost because the people making money off of it told us so.

The planet as a hospitable place for humans is fucked. How bad depends on what we do now #IPCC

— Erin Brockovich (@ErinBrockovich) August 9, 2021

Ms Brockovich rose to prominence after championing successful legal battles against major corporations polluting the environment.

A movie based on her legal battles starring Julia Roberts was released in 2000.

[9 August 2021 17:08 · Louise Boyle]

America’s oldest conservation group says we are “long past the point of debating” the climate crisis

The Sierra Club, America’s largest and oldest grassroots environmental organization, called the IPCC report “alarming”.

“These latest findings from the IPCC affirm what we already know: the climate crisis is picking up speed at an alarming rate and we are long past the point of debating about it,” said International Climate and Policy Campaign Director Cherelle Blazer.

“We still have a chance to come together to change the course of history, but we must take care of each other and lead with our values. These problems are people made, and can be people solved, from the ground up. We must invest in our communities to ensure that we are able to recover from, prepare for, and mitigate the impacts of current and future climate disasters. And we must transition to a 100 percent clean economy without delay. We have the tools and the information in hand, and the choices we make now will shape our future.

“Congress must act with haste to pass bold infrastructure legislation that centers climate action at its core, including through major clean energy tax credits, a Clean Energy Payment Program, a Civilian Climate Corps, expanded electric vehicle investments, and much, much more. We can and we must work together to create a livable planet for everyone.”

[9 August 2021 17:38 · Louise Boyle]

The IPCC is telling us what every sane person knows, says Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders

In typical pulling-no-punches style, Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator of Vermont, offered his blunt assessment of the IPCC report on Monday.

“The IPCC is telling us what every sane person knows,” Mr Sanders wrote. “Unless there is BOLD action to combat climate change, the planet we will be leaving our kids and future generations will be increasingly uninhabitable. Now is the time for action.”

The liberal senator is one of the most vocal and enduring advocates for climate action in US politics.

For example, when is comes to President Biden’s infrastructure package, he has implored fellow senators on both sides of the aisle to focus on fighting climate change along with other priorities like boosting the middle class and providing adequate healthcare.

He also insists that it is long past time that wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share in taxes to combat these issues.

[9 August 2021 17:47 · Louise Boyle]

The IPCC’s stark assessment on the climate crisis did not make for easy reading - but the hundreds of scientists who came together to create the report have repeatedly stressed that humanity’s actions still have the ability to determine the course.

Environment correspondent, Harry Cockburn, offers some suggestions on what you can do to fight back.

[9 August 2021 17:55 · Louise Boyle]

President Joe Biden has issued a statement following the IPCC report. “We can’t wait to tackle the climate crisis. The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable. And the cost of inaction keeps mounting,” the president said.

On his first day in office, President Biden signed an executive order to re-enter the US into the Paris Agreement, the global agreement to limit global heating to “well below” 2C and aim for an increasingly ambitious 1.5C. Former president Donald Trump pulled the US from the Paris deal during his term.

[9 August 2021 18:04 · Louise Boyle]

Climate activist Greta Thunberg has used her interview with Vogue Scandinavia to highlight the impact of fast fashion on the climate crisis.

Thunberg, 18, tweeted: “You cannot mass produce fashion or consume ‘sustainably’ as the world is shaped today. That is one of the many reasons why we will need a system change.”

Thunberg is the first cover star of Vogue Scandinavia, which recently launched with the aim of being fully sustainable and carbon neutral.

[9 August 2021 18:37 · Louise Boyle]

The world must listen to communities living on the frontlines of the climate crisis, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate told climate correspondent Daisy Dunne after the release of the landmark IPCC report.

“To think that we are failing to make efforts to keep global temperatures below 1.5C is really scary,” she toldThe Independent.

“Even at 1.2C, communities like mine, across Africa and the global south – on the frontlines of the climate crisis – are already facing impacts that are destroying livelihoods, dreams and hopes.”

Many parts of sub-Saharan Africa have faced devastating extreme weather events this summer. Uganda has faced severe flooding in recent weeks, forcing hundreds to evacuate their homes.

Read more below

[9 August 2021 18:46 · Louise Boyle]

Why are the wildfires in Greece and Turkey so severe?

Raging wildfires have forced thousands of people to flee their homes in parts of Greece and Turkey in the last two weeks, tearing through landscapes and causing what Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called a “nightmarish summer”.

Areas most at risk are those home to large forests of highly flammable pine trees, left bone-dry by the recent extreme heatwave. The lack of moisture in wood, soil and vegetation has turned forests into tinderboxes.

Summer wildfires are either human-caused or sparked by lightning. The coastal regions and islands are particularly susceptible to blazes growing out of control as flames are swept by ocean winds from the Aegean Sea.

[9 August 2021 19:18 · Louise Boyle]

Will Boris Johnson and Jeremy Clarkson now take the climate crisis seriously? They owe us an apology

If there is to be change, it should start with the realisation that the Johnsons of the world, the Clarksons and all the rest of them have nothing of any use to say, writes Tom Peck. Read his full sketch below