Summary of UN special report on climate change: The Arctic as we know it is gone, believe your eyes
The studies presented in the IPCC report are very valuable, says Mathis from the US National Academy of Sciences. But "you don't have to be a scientist to know what's going on," he stressed.
Our oceans are very unstable. About 1.4 billion cubic meters of water in it is rising, warmer, dissolving more and more acid but losing less oxygen.
The conclusion was drawn from a special report on the United Nations climate situation, with the presence of more than 100 scientists from 36 countries around the world. They cited 6,900 studies to produce an encyclopedia assessing the changes of the oceans and ice, in the context of the planet is constantly warming.
" More than 90% of the heat that contributes to global warming is warming the oceans, " said Josh Willis, NASA oceanographer. Therefore, he emphasized that " global warming is actually warming of the ocean".
In fact, most of the heat traps on Earth are absorbed by the ocean. It is the shield that protects us from climate change. In the midst of these CO2 heat traps showing no signs of declining, disrupted ocean activity could be just the beginning of a catastrophic ocean transition.
Anyone who lives and will live on the planet in the coming decades and centuries, we and the future generation will have to face rising and warmer sea levels, along with other climate impacts.
Summary of UN Special Report on Climate Change: Those who live in the 21st century must read it
The problem will get worse, but humanity can still limit the consequences, especially by thoroughly curbing carbon emissions.
" If we drastically reduce emissions, the consequences for the people and their livelihoods will still create challenges ," said Hoesung Lee, chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Quoc, said. But the challenges will be reduced enough for us to deal with and protect those who are the most vulnerable.
Agreeing with this, Jeremy Mathis, a longtime Arctic researcher who is currently the board director of the US National Academy of Sciences, said: " Even with positive [carbon] mitigation efforts, we will still have to deal with the consequences of a transformed ecosystem and environment. "
It is worth mentioning that the amount of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere is currently skyrocketing. It has not reached its current peak in at least 800,000 years - most likely millions of years.
And for the most comprehensive view of what's happening to Earth, our home, here are important summaries from the new UN report for you:
1. The situation of sea level rise will be worse than you can imagine
The UN report concludes that sea level will not stop rising in the coming centuries. In the most fairy-tale scenario, when humans could restrain global warming at 1.5 ° C compared to the period before the Industrial Revolution (although this scenario was almost impossible to achieve), barbecue will only rise from 0.3 to 0.6 m by the end of the century.
But if emissions continue to rise, the IPCC predicts sea levels will rise by more than one meter. This is because the Earth's most massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will then melt at unprecedented speed as well. This melting process will last until the end of the 21st century and will continue, according to the report.
Speed of rising sea level.
Despite this, the United Nations is often known as the cautious agency for estimating climate issues. That means that melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland can raise sea levels even higher.
" I don't think there is any scientist who will rule out 2 meters by 2100, " Willis at NASA said. " I think most of the scientists who are studying Antarctica and Greenland think that the sea level rise may be higher than current predictions."
Much of that is because warming oceans will corrode and melt glaciers, says Willis. He noted that this was a significant effect on the Arctic, and oceanographers were just beginning to learn about it.
And guess what, the oceans will definitely continue to warm up."In the 21st century, it is predicted that the oceans will transform through unprecedented conditions with increased temperatures " alongside other changes, the UN report concludes.
2. The ocean is creating typhoons
The IPCC report highlights that tropical cyclones formed in the southern Pacific and Indian Oceans, including those in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Central and Northeast Pacific, will be increasingly stronger, especially the wind will be stronger and the rainfall will be extremely large.
That's because super typhoons are fed with warm seawater. Storms themselves can increase the radius of the cloud disk by drawing evaporation of seawater, and creating stronger winds by converting water vapor into energy.
Research shows that significant warming of seawater is a major factor, far ahead of other factors, in turning a normal Atlantic storm into a super typhoon.
Warming oceans are creating more and more typhoons.
But a storm does not necessarily have to be strong winds to cause havoc. Today's storms often carry more water and warmer sea surface temperatures are conditions for them.
" The oceans are a lot warmer than they were 50 years ago ," said Mathis, former director of the Arctic Research Program of the Agency for Atmospheric and Oceanic (NOAA). He noted that warmer oceans produce more water vapor in the atmosphere, providing more "food" for storms.
" Warming oceans will trigger extreme rain events," Mathis said while citing the storm of Imelda that devastated the Texas coast. Imelda became one of the most water storms in US history. "That storm only took 12 hours to execute but dragged the area's precipitation to 42 inches ."
3. Everything is changing
The special UN report not only focuses on the oceans, but also covers all the water on the planet - also known as the hydrosphere. The hydrosphere will include Mount Everest glaciers, Greenland ice sheets and water thousands of meters below the surface of the sea.
" I think the most important part of the report and the message embedded inside it is: Human-induced climate change is affecting all aspects of the atmosphere, a key component of life support , " says Jeremy Owens, a marine biologist at the University of Florida.
More importantly, the Earth's glaciers and glaciers are shrinking . Glaciers on every continent except Australia (where there are no glaciers) are shrinking or dying. More dangerously, the mountains are losing their snow cover, which is also losing an important source of water for the warm or dry season.
Glaciers are melting.
"The snow is very good, but we are getting less and less snow," said Heidi Steltzer, lead author of the IPCC report.
Warming oceans will have many consequences. Owens notes that climate change will affect water temperature (which has serious consequences for marine life), the ability to disperse nutrients around the ocean, and acidity in the ocean (when the ocean absorbs CO2. from the air) and the concentration of oxygen in the water - something marine life needs to breathe.
4. The Arctic we know is gone
The North Pole is the most devastated place on Earth. That's because the region is twice as warmer than the rest of the globe. The sea ice cover covers a vast Arctic Ocean so is also disappearing.
In this week alone, the Arctic sea ice area has dropped to the second lowest level in history, 2 million km2 below the average minimum ice level in previous decades and colder decades.
"The rapid changes in the Arctic are some of the most obvious indicators of man-made climate change ," said Zack Labe, a climate scientist and doctoral student at the University of California. know.
The Arctic is likely no longer equal in the summer.
The report shows that even as our civilization stabilizes its climate at an increase of 1.5 ° C, the Arctic will continue to thin. But we will limit our ability to see an Arctic that has no ice in the summer (September period) at the threshold of every 100 years.
If the planet warmed to 2 ° C this century, the Arctic ice would probably melt completely in September every three years. In fact, our planet has been warming by 1.1 ° C since the late 1800s. So, 1.5 ° C is coming very fast.
5. Believe in your own eyes
The studies presented in the IPCC report are very valuable, says Mathis from the US National Academy of Sciences. But " you don't have to be a scientist to know what's going on, " he stressed.
This is because the consequences of an ocean and the constantly rising atmosphere are something that can be easily seen by the naked eye.
Twice in the past three years, the Texas Gulf coast has experienced storms with rainfall greater than 40 inches, Mathis noted, including the largest rain event in US history.
And with Tropical Storm Imelda, Texas can now experience 5 "once-in- a-lifetime floods " in just 5 years.
" It was unusual and unimaginable. You don't have to be a scientist to know it's not normal ," Mathis said.
"Believe in your eyes".
You don't have to be a scientist to know what's going on.
We have been facing an warming and breaking ocean. And with the increase in carbon emissions, they are expected to continue to warm up, and sea level rise will continue to rise. It is a physical rule.
" We are staring at a gun barrel, before some major economic and environmental impacts have begun to occur, " Willis from NASA emphasized. "All reports predict the situation will be much worse."
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