Opinion | What climate scientists have warned the world?

By Augustus K. Yeung

INTRODUCTION

Much to the joy of the world, this week, more than 100 world leaders will speak over the next few days to try deal with a worsening problem that scientists' call Earth's biggest challenge. Nearly 50 heads of states or governments started to take the stage yesterday in the first day of "high-level" talks at this year's annual U.N. climate conference, known as COP 27, with more to come in the following days, reports AP.

Much of the focus will be on national leaders telling their sad stories of being devastated by climate disasters, culminating tomorrow with a speech by Mr. Muhammad Sharif, Pakistan Prime Minister whose country's summer floods caused at least $40 billion in damage and displaced millions of people.

Much to worry about, though: Earth's warming weather and rising seas are getting worse and doing so faster than before, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned yesterday in a somber note as world leaders started gathering for international climate negotiations.

"The planet has become a world of suffering…is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the summit host, told his fellow leaders. "Climate change will never stop without our intervention…"

"The lates State of the Global Climate report is a chronicle of climate chaos," UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. "We must answer the planet's distress signal with action – ambition, credible climate action."

"Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish," Guterres said. "It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact – or a Collective Suicide Pact."

Latest Victims of Climate Crisis Include Pakistan, East Africa and China's Yangtze River…

In its annual state of the climate report, the United Nations' weather agency said that sea level rise in the past decade was double what it was in the 1990s and since January 2020 has jumped at a higher rate than that. Since the decade began, seas are rising at 5 millimeters a year compared to 2.1 millimeters in the 1990s.

The last eight years have been the warmest on record, the WMO said in a report that didn't break new ground but was a collection of recent weather trends, data and impacts in one central place.

"The melting [of ice] game we have lost and also the sea level rate," WMO chief Petteri Taalas told The Associated Press. "There are no positive indications so far."

The only reason that the globe hasn't broken annual temperature records in the past few years is a rare three-year La Nina weather phenomenon, he said.

The data on sea level and average temperatures are nothing compared to how climate change has hit people in extreme weather: The report highlights the summer's in credible flood in Pakistan that killed more than 1,700 and displaced 7.9 million; a crippling four-year drought in East Africa that has more than 18 million hungry; the Yangtze River drying to its lowest level in August, and record heat-waves broiling people in Europe and China.

The Latest Report from the WMO Reads Like a Medical Report for a Dying Person…

"This latest report from the WMO reads like a lab report for a critically ill patient, but in this case the patient is Earth," said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, who wasn't part of the report.

Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide all reached record high levels, with potent methane increasing at a record pace, the report said.

That means more than just warming temperatures on land: Ice, both Greenland's ice sheet and the world's glaciers, are shrinking precipitously, the report said. For the 26th year in a row, Greenland lost ice when all types of ice are factored in; the volume of glacier snow in Switzerland dropped by more than one-third from 2001 to 2022, the report said.

But 90% of the heat trapped on Earth goes into the ocean and the upper 2000 meters of the ocean is getting warmer faster. The rate of warming the last 15 years is 67% faster than since 1971, the report warned. (Source: MDT/AP)

CONCLUSION

Outside experts weren't surprised by the report and said no one should be.

"What climate scientists have warned about for decades is upon us. And will continue to worsen without action," said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd. "Two things must go away: Climate delayism and speaking about climate change impacts in future tense. It's here."

Who is delaying the work of international cooperation? Which countries know better than the ones speaking about climate change in future tense?

The Western countries, notably UK and the United States are the two industrial powers that have had greatly contributed to the climate crisis, the impact of the Industrial Revolution. So serious was the industrial pollution that London had come to be known as the "fog-capital" of England. And young Oliver Twist, an orphan, was there to witness the sin of the industrialists, according to Charles Dickens a responsible journalist and a renowned novelist, who penned the widely read book, Oliver Twist.

Which countries know better than the ones speaking about climate change in future tense?

The United States is obviously self-centered and obsessed with its hegemony: When the Solomon Islands, for example, made a security deal with China, under America's pressure, the Australian Morrison administration put tremendous pressure on the islanders, without truly understanding their anxiety about their reality, the threat of being submerged in the course of drastic climate change.

They turned to China for help; their anxiety should now be clear.

Meanwhile, China is quietly, systematically but actively greening the nation by making drastic environmental changes. The details of which will soon be shared with the world. China is able, willing and ready to cooperate with the United States to tackle climate crisis, in the same spirit that it has propelled the Belt and Road initiative, for world prosperity.

The author is a freelance writer; formerly Adjunct Lecturer, taught MBA Philosophy of Management, and International Strategy, and online columnist of 3-D Corner (HKU SPACE), University of Hong Kong.

 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.

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