Earth’s temperature is rising alarmingly.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the most reputable scientific organization on climate change, released its Sixth Assessment Report on March 20, 2023, and the planet is on the verge of a climate emergency.
The 8,000 pages-long report describes the dire effects of rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide.
The AR6 reported increased GHG emissions have caused the destruction of homes, the loss of livelihoods, and the disintegration of communities.
The report warns the global surface temperature “has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period over at least the last 2,000 years.”
“This report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a litany of broken climate promises,” Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres said in a media conference held on March 20, 2023.
“We are on a fast track to climate disaster,” he said.
AR6 lays out how humans are to blame for the 1.1° C temperature increase occurring since the beginning of the industrial age in a detailed manner.
This increase has been greater over land than over the ocean.
The chair of the IPCC, Hoesung Lee, said in the media conference this report will serve as the resource for policy-makers at a critical moment in history, “when it is imperative that climate action become a much higher priority.”
The report illustrates solutions for combating climate change, such as using wind and solar energy, reducing food waste, and sustainable urban planning, among others.
It also said climate adaptation measures would benefit both human health and the environment.