A new United Nations report reaches a definitive but familiar conclusion: We’re not doing enough to prevent catastrophic levels of climate change.
The report, released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warns that the planet is on track to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, a critical threshold that virtually all nations in the Terra agreed to work to avoid it. We can expect to beat this within a decade, unless we immediately switch to renewable energy and halve global warming pollution by 2030. More than a century of burning coal, oil and gas is catching up with us, and there is little time to change course.
But a frustrating reality the report highlights is the extent to which we continue to deny fossil fuels.
The UN scientific assessment, endorsed by 195 nations, says existing and planned fossil fuel infrastructure — all the coal-fired power plants, oil wells and gas vehicles already built or on the way — will generate enough pollution by greenhouse gases. warming the planet by a catastrophic 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, this century.
Humans have already overheated the Earth by 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). To prevent irreversible damage to our communities and ecosystems, we cannot stop allowing new oil and gas drilling and coal and gas power plants, and end the production of combustion engine vehicles. We must also cancel and retire existing fossil fuel projects.
But this seems like a dream, because the most powerful nations in the world continue to advance projects that endanger the planet.
China has been permitting new coal-fired power plants at a staggering rate of two per week. President Biden last week approved the massive Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, giving ConocoPhillips permission to extract up to 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years and breaking his campaign promise of “no more drilling on land Feds. Period. Period. Period. Period.” (Yes, he said it four times for emphasis.)
Meanwhile, oil companies are backtracking on their commitments to fight climate change and transition to renewable energy while reaping record profits from rising fuel prices. In California, permitting of new oil drilling continues unabated after oil companies spent $20 million to secure a referendum to overturn a state law banning new wells near homes and schools. Global energy-related carbon emissions hit a record last year, and another UN climate conference in Egypt last fall ended without a deal to phase out fossil fuels.
While 1.5 degrees of warming would be horrific enough, every fraction of a degree we go above that would mean greater human suffering and environmental destruction. We should feel some optimism that the barriers to addressing this are no longer technological, but almost entirely political, and that the worst-case scenarios of temperature rise that scientists once feared are no longer considered very likely thanks to the growth of renewable energies, electric vehicles. and other zero emission technologies.
Yet it can be overwhelming to contrast how little is being done about climate change with the clarity of the science. Crossing climate thresholds may seem inevitable, and we may feel powerless to stop it. But we are not powerless to alter this course by making different decisions every day that, when added up, can reduce the severity of global warming we will live with for decades to come.
From local government to heads of state, officials at all levels should exercise whatever authority they have to dismantle dangerous fossil fuel machinery and quickly replace it with clean, renewable energy. Whether it’s hastening the end of gas plants, oil drilling and internal combustion cars, or paving the way for vehicle electrification and wind power generation and transmission and solar, there are thousands of opportunities to avoid the worst possibilities for our future.
Our job is to take advantage of each and every one of these decisions and demand swift action that increases the chances of a more tolerable future for nature and humanity.
— The Los Angeles Times, March 21
