Nearly 80% of the 380 expert scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that responded to a Guardian survey reported expecting that, as in the grand scheme of things we’ve done so little to combat global warming, temperatures are likely to rise by at least 2.5C by 2100. Which is pretty much in line with last year’s pre-Cop28 UN report that had us on track for a 3 degree increase in the same time frame.
This is….not good. The claim is that a 2.5 degree increase will cause “catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet,”
Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.
The lawmakers and regulators have not helped as one might have hoped they would.
Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.
But most of us, especially those in more privileged positions, likely bear at least some small responsibility for the situation. Or as on unnamed scientist said:
The world’s response to date is reprehensible – we live in an age of fools.