To save the planet, protect forests now, UN says

Last year, the IPCC warned of an imminent climate crisis. This year, it makes a plea to save forests before time runs out.

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change annual report, released this morning, stresses the need to quickly and drastically change how the world manages land.

To fight climate change, University of Virginia environmental scientist Deborah Lawrence says sustainable strategies should be less like a silver bullet, narrowly hitting a single target, and more like a silver buckshot, that explodes on impact and scatters pellets in different directions.

“Climate change is such a threat, we need to be searching for every possible angle [to fight it],” she says.

The IPCC report represents an annual report card and recommendation list for how people, scientists, and policymakers should shape their priorities. Here are the main takeaways from the most recent report.

Between extreme weather conditions like

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