Global warming who is right

TNC has resources to help you break the climate silence and pave the way for action on global warming. We need to increase renewable energy at least nine-fold from where it is today to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and avoid the worst climate change impacts.

Every watt that we can shift from fossil fuel to renewables like wind power or solar power is a step in the right direction. The best science we have tells us that to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, we must globally achieve net-zero carbon emissions no later than To do this, world must immediately identify pathways to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors: transportation, electricity, and industry.

This cannot be achieved without a major shift to renewable energy. Clean energy and technological innovation are not only helping mitigate climate change, but also create jobs and support economic growth in communities across the world.

Renewable energy such as wind and solar have experienced remarkable growth and huge cost improvements over the past decade with no signs of slowing down. Prices are declining rapidly, and renewable energy is becoming increasingly competitive with fossil fuels all around the world. In some places, new renewable energy is already cheaper than continuing to operate old, inefficient and dirty fossil fuel-fired power plants. Fortunately, TNC studies have found that we can meet clean energy demand 17 times over without converting more natural habitat.

The key is to deploy new energy infrastructure on the wealth of previously converted areas such as agricultural lands, mine sites and other transformed terrain, at a lower cost. Thoughtful planning is required at every step. TNC has mapped out t he right places to site wind turbines in this region in order to catalyze renewable energy responsibly.

The truth is there is not a hard and fast deadline on climate action vs. Some studies and articles suggest that unless we make significant progress towards decarbonization reducing carbon from the atmosphere and replacing fossil fuels in our economies by , we may be facing catastrophic climate impacts that would overwhelm our communities and pose an existential threat to certain ecosystems.

There is no definitive line of demarcation that we can protect against, instead it is a matter of minimizing the effects of climate change. Every day that goes by, we are releasing carbon into the atmosphere and increasing our planetary risk.

Most scientists agree that we need to begin reducing carbon emissions RIGHT NOW to give our planet and our population the future that is least impacted. This type of warming could lead to catastrophic melting of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, causing sea level rise that would flood most major global coastal cities. The wildlife we love and their habitat will be destroyed, leading to mass species extinction. Superstorms, drought, and heat waves would become increasingly common and more extreme, leading to major health crises and illness.

Agricultural production would plummet, likely leading to global food shortages and famine. Water supplies would disappear around the world, making some regions nearly inhabitable. The good news is that climate change is not an impossible problem.

We know what causes it and what to do to stop it. It will take courage, ambition and details beyond lofty announcements. Reaching net zero carbon emissions by is an ambitious goal, one that's going to require substantial effort across every sector of the economy. We don't have a lot of time, but if we are prepared to act now, and act together, we can substantially reduce the rate of global warming, and prevent the worst impacts of climate change from coming to pass.

What's most encouraging is that the low carbon economy that we need to create will also give us cleaner air, better energy choices, new jobs and may even save us money. There's still time. This is the time. Join The Nature Conservancy in taking action right now by speaking up to leadership and by learning your carbon footprint. Seven in 10 Americans believe climate change is happening and 6 in 10 are worried about it.

Yet more than half of Americans rarely—if ever—talk about climate change with their friends and families. The climate emergency requires a dramatic reduction in emissions—but it also requires greater investments in nature. By James McClintock. Back To Top. Climate Change Stories Climate Change FAQs Use this guide to have the best information at hand about the urgent challenge of climate change and how we can solve it by working together.

December 09, Last updated October 08, You've got questions. We've got answers. Climate change basics Is it climate change, global warming, or global climate crisis? Is climate change caused by humans?

Effects of climate change How is climate change affecting animals? How is climate change affecting people? Solving climate change What are solutions to climate change? What is TNC doing about climate change? What can I do to stop climate change? Energy and climate change How much renewable energy do we need to stop climate change? Version 4. Heat stored in the Earth system: where does the energy go?

Velicogna, I. National Snow and Ice Data Center. Robinson, D. Hall, and T. Boulder, Colorado USA. Fahey, K. Hibbard, D. Dokken, B. Stewart, and T. Maycock eds. Sabine et. An indicator of current global average temperature as measured by NASA; updated annually.

Global Climate Change: Causes. An overview of the greenhouse effect and other contributors to abrupt climate change. Graphic: Global Warming from to Climate Kids: What is Happening in the Ocean? Video: Oceans of Climate Change. Vital Signs: Land Ice. Global Ice Viewer. Interactive: Global ice viewer. Earth Observatory: Snow Cover. An indicator of current global sea level as measured by satellites, updated monthly. Quiz: Sea level. Interactive: Global Ice Viewer.

Precipitation Measurement Missions. Precipitation Quiz. Over the next two weeks, countries will formalize — and perhaps even strengthen — those commitments. But making them a reality will require as-yet- unprecedented political mobilization at the national level once leaders return home. Sylla says his home country of Senegal has gone through all the motions and developed adaptation plans for a warming climate, but is anything changing on the ground?

The scientists surveyed by Nature are part of the IPCC working group charged with assessing the causes and extent of climate change. Their latest report, approved by governments in August, concluded that fossil-fuel emissions are driving unprecedented planetary changes, threatening both people and the ecosystems that humans rely on for food and other resources.

But in announcing the report, IPCC scientists stressed that these goals could still be achieved. A separate report from the United Nations Environment Programme last week projected that the climate commitments already announced by nations would put the world on a path towards 2. Other projections raise the possibility of even more reductions. The Climate Action Tracker, a consortium of scientific and academic organizations, estimates that warming would be limited to 2.

One of the goals of the climate negotiations is to prompt more-ambitious steps for limiting greenhouse-gas emissions, but most respondents to the Nature survey seemed to be pessimistic about future policies and the amount of warming see Supplementary information for survey data tables.

The survey results might not be surprising given the decades of limited progress in tackling climate change, but the opinions of climate researchers should raise alarms, says Diana Liverman, a geographer who studies climate at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Those who took part did so in a personal capacity, not as representatives of the IPCC. Still, the survey provides a snapshot of the views of a significant proportion of the researchers who wrote the report. Although the results indicate that many harbour deep concerns, the survey also revealed signs of optimism. Charles Koven, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, draws hope about the future because of advances in science and technology, and rapidly evolving public opinion.

One positive development, he says, is that results in the past few years indicate that global average temperatures will level off quickly once humanity stops emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is contrary to long-held expectations that warming would continue for decades even if emissions were halted, owing to a lag in the climate system.

He also cites plummeting costs of clean-energy technologies, as well as rising public demand for action in the face of increasingly visible climate impacts — such as the wildfires that he and his family have grown accustomed to each year in California. Two-thirds of the respondents said they engage in climate advocacy, and almost all of those who do said they promote climate science through speeches, publications or videos.

One-quarter said they have joined demonstrations.