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Too late to curb climate change?




There are still doubting-thomases who question climate change as being the cause for, amongst other things, the excesses in weather.

 Today comes a salutary warning that it may already be too late to curb climate change - or else we hop to it and start now.

 "The likelihood of limiting the world's overall temperature to a 2-degree Celsius rise and avoiding the worst effects of climate change has become "ever more elusive" and will not be possible without immediate and drastic measures on a global scale, a new report by the United Nations Environmental Program warned Tuesday.

If countries stick to their current strategies, or lack thereof, for reducing greenhouse gases, levels will still be eight to 12 billion tons greater than suggested levels in 2020, according to UNEP's Emissions Gap Report 2013, which incorporated 44 scientific groups across 17 countries and analyzed countries' current pledges for emission cuts.

UNEP found in this year's report that the "gap" between reduction pledges and the actual reductions suggested by climate experts is still widening.

"Achieving the 2-degree goal is with every year less possible. Emissions always rise, even though they need to sink sharply," German Institute for International and Security Affairs researcher Oliver Geden told Agence France-Presse.

Current emissions reduction strategies will essentially "lock in" climate change and the carbon intensive energy economy that creates it, warned UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner."

 Also see this piece from The New Yorker.

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