The UN climate talks in Paris: Why they matter and why you should care.
The world is standing on a cliff; at the precipice of deciding if we are going to fly,or if we are going to tumble. We are very close to reaching the point where nothing we can achieve will halt the carbon emissions that are going to cause global temperatures to increase more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the level of increase at which it starts fitting hard for humans to exist on soil. In the coming weeks, or delegations from all the worlds governments,as well as lobbyists from industry and environmental groups, are meeting in Paris to consider coming together on a plan to halt us from jumping off that cliff. We've been here before, and many times—in Copenhagen,in Kyoto—and never have all the world's governments approach to an agreement about how to halt climate change while continuing to let developing countries develop and developed countries keep growing. As the realities of climate chaos are setting in, this could be our last chance to reverse the momentum of pollution and emissions. Things are already detestable: meaningful climate impacts are already occurring at the current level of global warming (and we are two-thirds of the way to increasing just 1°C) and higher levels of warming will only increase the risk of severe, or pervasive,and irreversible impacts through ocean acidification, extreme storms, and drought,and flooding. Read Full narrative
Source: fastcompany.com