UN Report Says We're In a Race Against Time To Save The Earth

Planet Earth is in a race against time over climate change's catastrophic consequences. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recently released a report called "IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate" that was written by 100 scientists around the globe.

According to that report, there are increased physical changes on Earth brought about by climate change—this is the product of man's greed, neglect, and abuse of the environment. Earth's polar regions are shrinking, ice sheets are thinning, and permafrost temperature is increasing. Global oceans that absorb more than 90% of excess heat are steadily warming. In fact, the rate of warming has doubled since 1993. Too much absorbed carbon dioxide and loss of oxygen caused an increase in surface water acidification. Thus, numerous fish are killed around the globe. Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) is rising, threatening coastal regions and nations like Maldives, Marshall Islands, and Tuvalu. There is also a threat for Nauru to vanish, with a higher than the global average sea-level rise of 5 mm per year.

Climate change is also impacting our ecosystem. With the increased temperature, winter is steadily becoming drier and hotter, impacting breeding season of certain species. Plants that are supposed to grow during summer are toasted even before they sprout from their seeds. The impact to the wildlife caused by forest and bush fires is unimaginable. The system carefully crafted by the billions of species of plants and animals are now deteriorating. The ecosystem is slowly disintegrating to eco-disorder.

The report also said that not only plants, animals, and the physical attributes of our planet are affected. Humans are also suffering from the impact of climate change. Coastal communities are exposed to increased number of tropical cyclones, tsunamis, floods, and even marine heatwaves. Increased fish kill, red tide, and fish migration are causing steady decline in fish production.

Decline in rice and crop production are also observed in agricultural countries. The plants die from either drought or torrential rain. Premature harvesting yields lower-quality produce. Another report also mentioned about an increase in crop losses due to infestation. Damages in infrastructure are costing us billions of dollars. Cities upon cities are either slowly sinking due to the steady rise of sea level or destroyed from flash floods. Ten years ago, on September 26, 2009, Marikina City in the Philippines is just one of the many cities destroyed by Typhoon Ondoy (international name: Ketsana). The name Ondoy itself has become a grim reminder to many Filipinos how nature can be unforgiving to those who destroy it.

The good news is that something can be done, if not to prevent it, to at least to slow it down. Several solutions have been suggested in the report including adoption of ecosystem-based approaches to address human development. Efforts must also be made to strengthen global response to sustainable development and poverty eradication. "Education, information, and community approaches, including those that are informed by indigenous knowledge and local knowledge, can accelerate the wide-scale behaviour changes consistent with adapting to and limiting global warming to 1.5°C," as stated in the report.