Climate Change Threat Is 'Higher Than Ever,' Warn World's Top Scientists

The world’s top climate scientists have given their sternest warning yet that manmade climate change is poised to wreak havoc on the Earth, saying the fate of the world is at stake. In the fifth installment of its climate assessment, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that if the world does not curtail the amount of atmospheric carbon, there will be “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems.

The 116-page IPCC report, a review of more than 30,000 climate-science studies, is the latest in a series that began in 1990. It has been signed off on by more than 100 governments, and is the first report to be released since 2007. It presents new conclusions that environmental scientists arrived over the past seven years.

The report says that greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever, spurred by rapid economic and population growth, and are causing the Earth to warm at an accelerated rate.

“The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen,” states the report. “It is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer, and that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions.”

The IPCC panel urges that the unrestricted production and consumption of fossil fuels be eliminated by 2100, if the Earth is to avoid the most threatening impacts of climate change. It also says funds need to be appropriated to embolden governments and people to develop new technologies and methods to combat climate change.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, hopes the report will “provide the roadmap by which policymakers will hopefully find their way to a global agreement to finally reverse course on climate change.” 

The vice-chairman of the panel, Belgian climatologist Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, took to Twitter saying that it may be up to ordinary people to make the right choices to reduce carbon output, but governments should be helping and promoting them along the way.

The report offers little hope, instead coming to the bleak conclusion that despite any efforts, it may be too late to slow or reverse climate change. It says that “even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts globally.”

The Obama administration is taking the report seriously. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that “we can't prevent a large scale disaster if we don't heed this kind of hard science.” Kerry also warned that political polarization would only hamper the U.S.’ efforts in reducing carbon output.

“The longer we are stuck in a debate over ideology and politics, the more the costs of inaction grow and grow,” he said.

The United Nations formed the IPCC in 1988 to determine the impacts of climate change. There is near-unanimous belief by climate scientists that the Earth is warming and the cause is linked to human activity. 

In late September, the world leaders united at the U.N.Climate Summit. It was the kick-off to actual negotiations on climate change between nations and the precursor to a U.N. Framework Convention for Climate Change, which will take place in Paris, France in December 2015.