The Sixth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was published on August 9, 2021. The Report paints a grim picture of the planet’s health owing to human induced climate change and rising temperatures. These seem set to rise above the 1.5° threshold, which will signal a critical point of no return for those most exposed to the catastrophe.
Commenting on the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres did not mince his words:
“Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 report is code red for humanity. 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 internationally agreed threshold of 1.5°C is perilously close. We are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5°C in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts and pursuing the most ambitious path.”
I hate to be a prophet of doom, but for meaningful remedial action to take place we all have to realise that we are in this together, and the chances of that happening are pretty remote. Just look at the charade going on in the US regarding facemasks and vaccines! Try forcing people to consume less meat and dairy products; or change their travelling habits! There is too much stupidity around and too few governments that are willing or able to embark on the painful journey needed to get us back on course.
The UN, of course, is also powerless, though it is doing its best to raise the alarm as Laocoön, unheeded, had done with the Trojans. Meanwhile disaster has set its course, riding on the waves that will usher in the destruction of the world as we know it.
