Time running out to tame global warming

Scientists yesterday set the outlines of a report on how to restrict global warming to a limit agreed last year by world leaders — even though the temperature threshold is at risk of being breached already.The UN-led study, due to be published in 2018 as a guide for governments, will look into ways of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to cap the rise at 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial levels.It will examine impacts of a 1.5C rise on vulnerable parts of the world including Greenland’s ice sheet and coral reefs.Thelma Krug, a Brazilian scientist who led the four-day meeting in Geneva, said it will also cast the fight against climate change as part of a wider struggle to end poverty and ensure sustainable growth.World leaders agreed to work towards that target at a meeting in Paris in December, also requesting the report as part of a global agreement to phase out greenhouse gas emissions in the second half the century.Each new bit of evidence makes the climate change warnings sound like a broken record. The latest is that National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration this week reported that July was the hottest month on record for the planet.The temperature was 1.57F above the 20th century average, shattering last year’s July record of being the warmest by 0.11F, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reports.July also was the 15th month in a row to break the monthly heat record. The data go back to 1880.“For the year to date, the average global temperature was 1.85 degrees F above the 20th-century average,” NOAA reports. “This was the highest temperature for this period, breaking the previous record set in 2015 by 0.34 degrees F.”Some studies indicate emissions could breach levels consistent with 1.5C within about five years.Many show temperatures overshooting that limit and then being reduced later by extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere with yet-to-be developed technology.The warming of the planet also results in spreading droughts such as those occurring in California, states in the Southwest, in sub-Saharan African nations and countries like Iran. The recurring wildfires in California are also an outgrowth of global warming.Thousands of people have had to flee devastating wildfires in Southern California, which have spread across nearly 50sq miles and consumed a number of homes and businesses. Five years of drought have turned much of the state into a tinder box with eight blazes burning from Shasta County in the far north to Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego.The Paris climate change summit last year was a co-ordinated response of many nations to try to arrest the warming of the planet. Efforts include increasing renewable fuels from solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources.Conservation efforts also will have to improve in addition to a continued reduction in burning coal, gas and oil as energy sources.But environmentalists worry that none of the efforts to save the planet is occurring fast enough to offset the effects of climate change. Their concern is that more disasters will keep occurring until ultimately they force people’s hand to act with a greater sense of urgency.