Alissa Scheller - 2 Degrees Will Change The World // Protesters gather around the world for a strong climate change deal
World leaders are meeting in Paris this month in what
amounts to a last-ditch effort to avert the worst ravages of climate change.
Climatologists now say that the best case scenario — assuming immediate and
dramatic emissions curbs — is that planetary surface temperatures will increase
by at least 2 degrees Celsius in the coming decades.
This may sound like a small uptick, but the implications are
profound. Rising temperatures will destroy plant and animal habitats, and
reduce yields of important food crops. More people will be exposed to the
ravages of flooding and drought.
But if the nations involved in the Paris talks stay on their
current emissions track and don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures
could go up by almost 6 degrees Celsius this century, according to the Committee
on Climate Change, an independent body that advises the U.K. government on
climate issues.
The consequences of a heating globe are already being felt
in Alaska, which is warming twice as fast as the rest of the U.S. Rising
temperatures have thawed frozen soil in some areas, leaving coastlines
vulnerable to storms and tidal activity. Shishmaref, a remote village that sits on an island 30
miles outside the Arctic circle, is losing as many as 9 feet of land a year —
chunks of coastline that simply break into the sea... read more:
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