Alert! ‘Code Red For Humanity’ says UN Climatic Change Report

Our planet is deteriorating, and the future is full of death, says an international panel of scientists by the United Nations. An unfortunate report was published on Monday by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) which declared ongoing disaters as, ‘Code Red for Humanity.’

The report concludes that it is too late for the Earth to regain itself back to normal. The situation will worsen, and the intolerable heat will result in massive deaths, drought, floods, and other extreme weather events accompanied by other extinctions over the next few decades.

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) that was issued by IPCC is one the most accurate reports regarding the causes and effects of human activities on the planet. This report ensures that a temperature rise of 1.5°Celsius is certain in the next 20 years, even if we emit zero greenhouse gases.

IPCC is a group of 234 scientists, from 66 different nations in the United Nations that have put 14,000 research papers from the last 5 years together to come up with AR6.

What is the purpose of IPCC?

Initially, IPCC was known as the Advisory Group on Greenhouse Gasses and was set in 1985 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Council for Science (ICSU), and World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It is a consortium of international scientists. It was in 1988 when it was named IPCC.

IPCC does not research on its own, but it relies on research around the globe. After analyzing all the reports and the climatic situations – it comes up with its assessment report. 

The reports are based on the government’s principles on how humans harm the environment, what impacts the environment goes through, and what can we do to mitigate the consequences.

What was in AR6?

The report is an analysis of all the climate changes, the risks to the planet, and the consequences of harming the environment in the last few years. After the pre-industrial age, it is humans who are responsible for 1.1°Celsius temperature rise. It has strengthened since the AR5.

The total emissions to date will increase 1.5°Celsius temperature of the Earth by 2040, and it is inevitable. Even if we decline all greenhouse emissions and carbon dioxide release to zero yet retreating the planet would not be easy till 2050.

According to the Paris agreement, a slow decline in the rate of emissions will raise the temperature by 2°Celsius. If the emission rate remains the same, the temperature will go up to 5.7°Celsius by 2100. Also, the temperature rise on land would be 1.5 times more than that of water.

What are the consequences of temperature rise?

According to the report, the temperature rise would have devastating consequences on the planet:

• Not only will it increase the regional temperature, but also the precipitation and soil moisture will increase tremendously.
• It will result in heatwaves and continuous rainfall due to extreme weather changes.
• Agriculture would have severe impacts.
• Economic drought will be a global scenario.
• Rare events like ice sheet collapse will become frequent. 
• Rain will increase for the long term on the coasts of Asia.

The report is an eye-opener for all world leaders who have the power to bring change. Immediate actions of zero-emission are much needed to avoid the environment crossing the 1.5°Celsius threshold.

Some changes are irreversible. Therefore, act before the change gets permanent.