Daily News-Record, August 19, 2021
Letters to the Editor: Les Grady
Thank you for the article in the Aug. 16 edition of the DN-R (page A8) about the response of Europeans to the Sixth Assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC). The last part of the article was particularly important because it stressed how our collective actions, while individually small, can have a large cumulative impact on the climate crisis. As we seek to limit global warming, we all will be called upon to make changes in our lives, from reducing how much beef and dairy we eat to replacing our gas or oil furnace with an electric heat pump. How we respond to those requests will determine the kind of world we live in.
This IPCC report examined the physical science of climate change. In case you missed it, below are five takeaways gleaned from it by several sources I trust:
• For the first time, the IPCC stated unequivocally that humans are causing the observed warming.
• Our actions have warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in the last 2,000 years.
• Climate change is affecting weather and climate extremes in every region of Earth.
• Limits on average global warming of 1.5° C ( 2.7° F) and 2.0° C ( 3.6° F) in the Paris Climate Agreement will be exceeded this century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.
• Although temperatures are likely to continue to increase until 2050, there is still a window in which humans can alter the climate path.
Leslie Grady Jr.
Rockingham
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley 