Climate change | Opinion and Commentary | championnewspapers ... - Chino Champion
Climate change | Opinion and Commentary | championnewspapers.com
This past month the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Assessment Report, summarizing scientific and socioeconomic information on climate change.
The 3,949-page report is compiled by 234 lead scientists from 66 countries, summarizing over 14,000 scientific papers. It is evaluated by 195 governments before it is released.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”