Global scientists are officially warning how the window to cut our reliance on fossil fuels and avoid climate disaster is slowly closing. The world has been increasingly experiencing droughts, raging wild-fires and engulfing floods, changing the landscape of our home planet and making it less hospitable than ever before. Allegedly warming up 1.1 degrees Celsius higher than pre-industrial levels, the climate is racking up towards 1.5 degrees – the critical threshold which global leaders agreed would be best to stay under. 

This dire situation can only be reversed if green house gas emissions and carbon dioxide are cut from the atmosphere, with lead author of the IPCC’s 2001 report saying that there are zero years left to avoid dangerous climate change. The breakneck speed with which the Earth is warming baffled, and outpaced, scientific predictions. Even if the most optimistic scenario were adhered to, which is that emissions start dropping today, global temperatures will still peak above the deadly threshold. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the report a code red for humanity as efforts need to be stepped up drastically if we wish to survive. Many countries have missed the deadlines to cut their emissions, with a significant gap forming between what leaders are promising and what is actually needed by 2030. Climate researcher Michael Byrne stated that we knew what was coming and now its here. 

Heat waves have killed hundreds in the US Northwest and British Columbia, and heavy rainfall that used to occur once every 10 years now occurs 30% more frequently. Droughts now happen 70% more often globally. The chance to turn the tides is getting slimmer by the day. The further progress is prolonged, human lives are at stake, turning the world we inhabit into an inhospitable landscape at every turn. 

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Photo Source: The New York Times