A few years ago the government asked for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to be written. The IPCC’s report that came out in September says that human influence on the climate system is now virtually certain. It was signed off and accepted before it was released. Perhaps the members of our government who received the report should have a read.
Today at COP19 Japan announced that they will reduce their emissions targets for 2020 from 25% below 1990 levels to 3.8% below 2005 levels. This is actually a 3.1% increase above 1990 levels.
Additionally, earlier in the week back in New Zealand, Gerry Brownlee said:
Well I think climate change is something that has happened always so to simply come up and say look it’s man made is I think is an interesting prospect.
Gerry Brownlee may think climate change is something that has always happened and he’s absolutely right. But claiming that human-induced climate change is just an interesting prospect is a bit like a Tom Selleck cigarette ad in the 70’s saying smoking refreshes naturally.
To me the two comments are equally as ridiculous as each other. How are some of these countries not seeing the big picture?
Recorded CO2 concentrations are 40% greater than they have been for the last 800,000 years based on ice core records. Furthermore, this year was the first time in 3 million years that CO2 concentrations rose above 400 parts per million. The last time we were in a 400 ppm world temperatures were 3 – 4 degrees warmer and sea-level was 10 - 20 metres higher as there was no permanent Greenland Ice Sheet or West Antarctic Ice Sheet. That’s where we are heading, that’s the end game. While we aren’t exactly sure how long that may take. We know in our lifetime an increase of half a metre of sea-level could see weather events presently described as annual occurring daily, while “100-year events ” could take place several times a year. To put this into perspective the global mean sea level rise could be almost 1 m higher by 2100 according to the most recent projections. Both flood and drought risk is projected to approximately double over New Zealand during the 21st century.
Why is it that governments continue to ignore the latest IPCC report and continue to slow progress?
We aren’t in the 70’s anymore Gerry……..
By Jacob Anderson