Very urgent: Global warming alert

As January, the International Zero Waste Month exits, it may be best and timely for everyone to be reminded about the urgent call for all to help keep global warming preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius level by 2030.

This is considered by scientists “as a key tipping point, beyond which the chances of hastening sea level rise/extreme flooding/drought/more extreme weather/wildfires/demise of vital ecosystems/and food shortages could increase dramatically.”

A CNN May 2023 article reported that, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “the world has already seen around 1.2 degrees of warming, as humans continue to burn fossil fuels and produce planet-heating pollution.”

WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas sounded “the alarm that we will breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency and that we need to be prepared as El Ni?o combined with human-induced climate change push global temperatures into uncharted territory, with far-reaching repercussions for health/food security/water management/the environment.”

As the trend of increasing global temperature “shows no sign of slowing, the WMO said that between 2023 and 2027, there is now a 66% chance that the planet’s temperature will climb above 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels for at least one year.”

“As temperatures surge, there is a 98% likelihood that at least one of the next five years – and the five-year period as a whole – will be the warmest on record for the planet. “

Another CNN May 2023 article discussed a study published in the journal Nature Sustainability which noted that “if the current pace of global warming goes unchecked, it will push billions of people outside the “climate niche,” the temperatures where humans can flourish, and expose them to dangerously hot conditions.

This climate niche “consists of places where the annual average temperature spans from 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) to around 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Celsius). Outside this window, conditions tend to be too hot, too cold or too dry.”

According to this study, “factoring in both the expected global warming and population growth, by 2030, around two billion people will be outside the climate niche, facing average temperatures of 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher.”

“One third of the global population could find themselves living in climate conditions that don’t support human flourishing,” according to Timothy Lenton, one of the study’s two lead authors and director of Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter.

Even as “less than 1% of the global population is currently exposed to dangerous heat, with average temperatures of 29 degrees Celsius or higher, climate change has already put more than 600 million people outside the niche.”

According to the study’s co-author. Professor Chi Xu of Nanjing University, “most of these people lived near the cooler 13 degree Celsius peak of the niche and are now in the ‘middle ground’ between the two peaks. While not dangerously hot, these conditions tend to be much drier and have not historically supported dense human populations.”

This seriously alarming finding of the study: “If the Earth warms 2.7 degrees Celsius, the Philippines, together with India, Nigeria, Indonesia and Pakistan would be the top five countries with the most population exposed to dangerous heat levels!”

The study shared that as areas within the climate niche shrink as global temperatures rise, expect increased mortality rates as “exposure to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius could be lethal. Expect more people frequently exposed to extreme weather events including droughts/storms/wildfires/heatwaves.

However, there is hope!

“if the world moves away from burning oil, coal and gas and toward clean energy, experts say there is still time to slow the pace of global warming!”

This means “speeding up by five times the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions or the decarbonization of the global economy,” according to Lenton.