In just a matter of days after the new Australian Government shut down the Climate Commission over 30,000 people have come together to raise $969,000 to put Tim Flannery back in his job. The new crowd-funded Climate Council have got straight to work analysing the latest 2000 page IPCC report and have prepared a summary. The four key messages you need to know from their summary are:
1. Our understanding of the climate system has only continued to strengthen in the last six years. Ocean and air temperature are rising, mass from glaciers and ice sheets is being lost, and sea level is rising.
2. Scientists are more certain than ever that increasing global temperatures since 1950 have been caused primarily by human activities.
3. A warming climate is increasing the frequency and severity of many extreme weather events and is changing rainfall patterns, creating risks for human well-being, the economy and the environment.
4. Stabilising the climate system will require substantial and sustained reductions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. We will have to decarbonise the economy.
The world’s leading climate scientists have agreed since 1971 that we have a climate problem and the latest report confirms we still have a problem.
Read the full report here. Support the Climate Council here.