The IPCC yesterday released a report as shocking as it is terrifying. This is information that we can’t ignore, the repercussions for the future of humanity need the world’s immediate attention.
Apparently global warming is true. Apparently it’s caused by the release of carbon-containing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere by humans.
Today’s news has been full of how all UN-member governments have approved this report, so they agree and won’t dispute it.
Now maybe my memory isn’t what it used to be, but I could be sure I’ve heard something like this before. Where could it have been? Mmm… Yes! When I was in school, back in the 1980s. And somewhere else… yes: over and over again every year since.
The first suggestions of global warming came in the 1970s and became established in 1985. A 1988 testimony to the US Congress made it world news. It rapidly became mainstream accepted science. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was created that year. The first international treaty to limit our damage was signed in Kyoto in 1992. That’s a generation ago. How is any of this news?
However we’re estimated to have released 833 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere from the start of the Industrial Revolution to Kyoto. The total’s close to 1.7 trillion tonnes now. Yes, we’ve doubled it.
It doesn’t look like knowledge is helping us a lot. Will certainty help any more?