Escape from Shalott: "Code Red for Humanity"

Since I last did one of these posts a couple of weeks ago, our country has been slammed by several catastrophies (see screenshots). I was going to highlight other recent unprecedented disasters abroad--CRAZY flooding across Asia, wildfires in Greece, Russia, Italy, Turkey--but it got too overwhelming, tbh.

This week I tuned in to the House Select Committee on Climate Change as it heard a review of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was released three weeks ago. Presenters were climate scientist reps from the US who helped compile the report, which amassed 14,000 studies from 65 countries to reach their conclusions, which reps from 195 member countries signed off on. (Can you imagine 195 countries agreeing on ANYTHING? The evidence must be pretty compelling, right?)

Here were some basic takeaways for me:

1) For the first time, the IPCC agrees that climate change is "indisputably" driven by human activities (this speaks to the IPCC's historical hesitancy to theorize beyond the reach of evidence, though this idea has been more than a theory for a long time)

2) We're locked in to about 1.5C/2.7F degrees warming, definite sea level rise, and polar melting;

3) But 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗱 *𝗶𝗳* 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆, 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝘁-𝘇𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟱𝟬;

4) Frequency and intensity of natural disasters (like the ones pictures) will continue to increase as warming increases;

5) The atmosphere responds immediately to emission reduction (as compared to ice and oceans, which are way slower);

6) Meaning we *𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀* in our lifetime;

7) Methane (natural gas, mostly from fossil fuels and agriculture) reduction in the atmosphere could especially help slow warming, and the tech exists to do so, fighting air pollution and climate change simultaneously.

The upshot? As always, call/email/tweet those reps early and often, yo. Ask them what they think about the IPCC report and tell them we need action to reduce emissions: https://myreps.datamade.us/

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