Our small window of opportunity

You may not know it, but late last week the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the most comprehensive assessment of the science of climate change ever undertaken: the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.

One of the key take-outs of this report was that we only have a very brief period of time in which to deal with climate change.

The report predicts that the average temperature between 2080 and 2100 will be 2.6-4.8C higher than today if emissions are unchecked.

Perhaps a 4C rise doesn’t sound like much to you? But consider this: the last ice age was just 4C cooler than it is today.

In addition, according to some commentators, within 15 to 30 years we will exhaust the total emissions budget that would provide us with reasonable odds of staying beneath 2C.

Scientists regard a warming of 2C as the threshold of safety. But even 2C risks severe drought and storms that could challenge civilized society, leading to conflict and mass migrations.

The good news is that the IPCC report says it's not too late. We have a window in which to limit warming, but it is a small one.

In my next post, I’ll be writing about action we can all take to overcome this terrible problem.

Image: ‘Earth South Pole’. FlyingSinger.