WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2014 – Humans are having a “clear and growing” influence on climate change, which, if left unchecked, could lead to “pervasive and irreversible impacts” for people and ecosystems, according to a United Nations report.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), however, said options are available to adapt to climate change, and implementing stringent mitigation activities can ensure that the impacts of climate change remain within a manageable range.
According to a press release from the panel, the
report confirms that climate change is being registered around the world and warming
of the climate system is obvious. Since the 1950s many of the observed changes
are unprecedented over decades to millennia.
“Our assessment finds that the atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amount
of snow and ice has diminished, sea level has risen and the concentration of
carbon dioxide has increased to a level unprecedented in at least the last
800,000 years,” said Thomas Stocker, co-chair of one of three IPCC working
groups that helped write the report.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that if the world maintains its
“business as usual” attitude about climate change, the opportunity to keep
temperature rise below the internationally target of 2 degrees Celsius “will
slip away within the next decade.”
“Time is not on our side…leaders must act,” the UN chief declared during a
press conference in Copenhagen, where the report -- the final installment of the
IPCC’s Fifth
Assessment Report -- was released. The report synthesized the work of over
800 scientists, parts of which were released over the past 13 months.
R.K. Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, said the world has the means to limit
climate change and that the solutions can allow for continued economic and
human development.
“All we need is the will to change, which will be motivated by knowledge and
an understanding of the science of climate change,” he said. But he said
addressing the issue will not be possible “if individual agents advance their
own interests independently.
“It can only be achieved through cooperative responses, including international
cooperation,” he said.
In the U.S., Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara
Boxer, D-Calif., said the report provides a scientific foundation to address
climate change, utilize clean energy and grow the economy.
“The world’s top
scientists are telling members of Congress and policy makers around the globe
that we cannot just try to adapt to climate change,” Boxer said in a news
release. “Instead we must act now to reduce dangerous carbon pollution or it
will it lead to irreversible impacts for human health, food and water supplies, and vital infrastructure.
“I will continue to
support the President’s Climate Action Plan, which puts our nation on the path
of significantly reducing carbon emissions,” Boxer said. “I will also work with my colleagues to put an
appropriate price on carbon which is the most effective way to avert disastrous
climate change.”
Sen. James Inhofe,
R-Okla., the senior member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, had
no immediate comment on the UN report. However, in an editorial in The Hill in
September, he repeated his contention that science does not back up what many
activists have said about climate change. He vowed to continue to fight
President Obama’s “economy-crushing domestic greenhouse gas regulations.” He
said Obama was “doubling down on global warming policies that have already
demonstrated that they do more harm than good.”
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