A new report from the United Nations warns that climate change actions must be taken now.
According to the UN, “Climate change
ABC News
Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone. Now many ecosystems are at the point of no return now. The report lays bare multiple threats, such as weather, extremes, drought and fire that have already disrupted human life and natural ecosystems in some cases, beyond the point where either are able to adapt.
The report makes it clear that those impacts are more widespread and happening more quickly than we had thought previously. The report stresses that significant change needs to occur in the next decade to prevent irreversible damage and science tells us that will require the world to cut emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
But, according to current commitments, global emissions are set to increase almost 14 percent over the current decade. What’s new in this report are multiple adaptation strategies that can be successful if the global temperature rise is limited to 1.
How will Western water laws cope?
Bobby Magill, a reporter with Bloomberg News
The Southwest’s ability to adapt to climate change may be limited by complex legal and administrative battles over the Colorado River and ultimately by the depletion of groundwater and river flows throughout the Southwest, the report says.
“The report shows how clearly how our western U.S. water management institutions, developed in the 19th and 20th centuries, are ill-suited to the challenges posed by climate change,” said John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico’s Water Resources Program.
Citing several experts, Magill thinks that the Biden administration may try to address this by using Clean Water Act protections under Waters of the US. This may not be a good strategy, particularly given the ephemeral nature of streams in the Southwest states.
Groundwater depletion
Where to download the full climate change report.
IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
This doesn’t seem possible to me. 8 years, 45%? Can this be done, truly? I hope so!