An Urgent Call to Action

Code Red for Humanity

A recent editorial reprinted in the Richmond Times Dispatch may have said it best: “One way or another, we are headed for a massive transformation of society. We can choose to either usher it in through a swift embrace of clean energy, or to ignore the warnings and accept a much more painful future, one in which our options will be limited by inaction and the devastating planetary change we have caused.”  At this moment, the choice is ours to make. 

Please consider these recent headlines and articles that set out the dimensions of the climate emergency and the limited time and opportunity we have to act.  Our children and grandchildren really need us to be champions of bold actions to address the climate crisis before us.

 

Associated Press (8/10/21)

‘Code red’: UN scientists warn of worsening global warming

Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”

 

Virginia Pilot (2/15/22)

Sea levels, rainfall and temperatures will keep rising in Virginia, NOAA says in new climate projections    The Virginia Institute of Marine Science under William & Mary also just released its annual “sea level report cards” for more than 30 coastal communities. Norfolk’s report card estimates sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet by 2050.

 

Washington Post (2/28/22)

Humanity has a ‘brief and rapidly closing window’ to avoid a hotter, deadly future, U.N. climate report says   Latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report details escalating toll — but top scientists say the world still can choose a less catastrophic path

 

Washington Post (2/13/22)

We can reduce global temperatures faster than we once thought — if we act now

“the best climate science you’ve probably never heard of suggests that humanity can still limit the damage to a fraction of the worst projections if — and, we admit, this is a big if — governments, businesses and all of us take strong action starting now.”

 

Richmond Times Dispatch (2/13/22)

Climate resilience in Virginia is a national security priority

 

NPR (1/11/22)

Extreme weather in the U.S. cost 688 lives and $145 billion last year, NOAA says

 

New York Times (2/28/22)

Time Is Running Out to Avert a Harrowing Future, Climate Panel Warns

The impacts of global warming are appearing faster than expected, according to a major new scientific report. It could soon become much harder to cope.

 

New York Times (10/7/21)

Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040

A landmark report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change paints a far more dire picture of the immediate consequences of climate change than previously thought and says that avoiding the damage requires transforming the world economy at a speed and scale that has “no documented historic precedent.”

 

Nature (2/8/22)

Scientists raise alarm over ‘dangerously fast’ growth in atmospheric methane

As global methane concentrations soar over 1,900 parts per billion, some researchers fear that global warming itself is behind the rapid rise.

 

Washington Post (1/31/22)

U.S. flooding losses will spike 26 percent by 2050 due to climate change, researchers say

Researchers say the forecast assumes nations meet emissions reduction targets set at the COP26 climate summit

 

Washington Post (1/5/22)

More than 40 percent of Americans live in counties hit by climate disasters in 2021

As climate-fueled extreme weather intensified last year, more than 80 percent of Americans experienced a heat wave. The impacts of fires and severe storms also spread.

 

Washington Post (10/20/21)

Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say

Top medical journal, Lancet, warns that rising temperatures will worsen heat and respiratory illness and spread infectious disease

 

New York Times (9/17/21)

United Nations Warns of ‘Catastrophic Pathway’ With Current Climate Pledges

An accounting of promises made by countries in the years since the Paris accord found that they are not enough to avoid drastic impacts from climate change.

 

International Energy Agency (4/20/21)

Global carbon dioxide emissions are set for their second-biggest increase in history

 

Associated Press (9/13/21)

Climate change could see 200 million move by 2050

Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hot spots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found.

 

Inside Climate News (9/8/21)

To Meet Paris Accord Goal, Most of the World’s Fossil Fuel Reserves Must Stay in the GroundA new study in Nature reports that oil, gas and coal production must begin falling immediately to have even a 50 percent chance of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

 

The Guardian (9/6/21)

More global aid goes to fossil fuel projects than tackling dirty air

Governments around the world gave 20% more in overseas aid funding to fossil fuel projects in 2019 and 2020 than to programmes to cut the air pollution they cause.

 

National Public Radio (8/27/21)

Greenhouse Gas Levels Are The Highest Ever Seen — And That’s Going Back 800,000 Years

 

The New Yorker (8/25/21)

Slow-Walking the Climate Crisis

“Greenwashing” is too kind a term; this is more like careful sabotage

 

New York Times (8/19/21)

Three Years after Greta’s Thunberg strike, Adults are Failing Children on a Global Scale 

 

Washington Post (8/10/21)

Humans have pushed the climate into ‘unprecedented’ territory, landmark U.N. report finds – The U.N. chief called the findings ‘a code red for humanity’ with worse climate impacts to come unless greenhouse gas pollution falls dramatically