'We have to stop emitting immediately'

By Laura Parker, Senior Reporter, ENVIRONMENT

The “code red alert” for the planet, issued Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is an unsurprising, if unsettling message. It means there’s no going back—the warming of the planet will intensify and keep pushing key climate systems toward irreversible change. The latest report, the sixth the IPCC has published since 1990, firms up the connection between global warming and extreme weather.

“We can link extreme weather to climate change in the same way we can link smoking to cancer,” one of report’s authors tells Sarah Gibbens, who details the flooding and the wildfires that have swept the globe in the past few months. The worst may be yet to come as fire and hurricane season reach their traditional peaks in the next few weeks.

In a companion story, Alejandra Borunda describes the possible consequences if tipping points emerge in the Amazon rainforest, the Earth’s biggest ice reserves in Greenland and Antarctica, or the current in the Atlantic Ocean. “In order to stabilize climate, we have to stop emitting immediately, full stop,” climate scientist Charles Koven, one of the report authors, told Borunda.

Yet, there is reason for optimism. The scientists, who analyzed 14,000 scientific reports, say it’s not too late to stave off the worst effects. This moment presents opportunity: The news is so bad that it may galvanize the world’s nations to reconsider the global climate plan. (Pictured above, a receding glacier in Greenland in May.)

Already, the world has seen more movement on climate in the last year than since 2015, when the Paris climate accord was adopted. Renewable energy use is growing rapidly. In June, leaders in Europe pledged to shift away from fossil fuels by 2030. Last week, President Biden, with the support of major automakers, announced a plan that half of all new vehicles sold in the United States will be electric. Even China, which announced last September it will strengthen pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reach carbon neutrality, has been shaken by flooding that has displaced 13 million people. The disaster was caused by a slow-moving rainstorm—exactly the kind of weather that scientists say will occur even more frequently.

The climate scientists caution to not lose sight of the mission. Better to focus less on hand-wringing, they say, and more on getting to work.

“We need to act like we are in a climate emergency,” says Tim Lenton. “People have now woken up and said, ‘Damn, the scientists weren’t bluffing,’ but now 30 years later here we are. It’s the action that counts now.”

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TAKE SIX

• The effective air conditioning that doesn’t require electricity (pictured above, at Columbia University)
• Is remote working better for the environment?
• Here’s how kids are fighting to make an eco-impact at their schools
• The surprisingly stunning afterlives of old coal plants
• Thailand bans coral-damaging sunscreens in marine parks
• How replanted seagrass is restoring the ocean

PLANET SMART

Deadly to insects, lifeline for the planet: How about an insecticide that doesn’t cause cancer, or create unnecessary die-offs of bigger species? The yellow center of the pyrethrum, aka the “killer chrysanthemum” (pictured, above right), contains a potent chemical that is made into an effective and environmentally friendly insecticide. It wards off ants, mites, and aphids, but is not harmful to other organisms. In Kenya’s Rift Valley, Grace (pictured, above left) is proud of her work in pyrethrum farming, which is enjoying a resurgence there. For local people, it means employment prospects and social benefits.

READ THE STORY 

ONE MOMENT

Joy: Children swing from a tree over a pond near the Meghna River in Charfasson, Bangladesh. The Meghna is a major river in the country, one of several that forms the Ganges Delta, the largest in the world. This photograph was taken during “Sea to Source: Ganges,” a 2019 expedition of female scientists studying plastic along the great river conducted by the National Geographic Society.

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Can we save our rivers and lakes?
Around the world, rivers, lakes, and wetlands have increasingly come under similar assault from poorly planned dams, pollution, habitat loss, sand mining, climate change, and the introduction of invasive species.

What you can do:
1. Get on board
2. Don’t litter
3. Demonstrate 

IN A FEW WORDS

FAST FORWARD

Keeping pets safe in a hotter world: The extreme temperatures we’ve experienced in much of the country this summer have had an adverse effect on wild animals: birds falling from nests, mussels boiling in their shells, and bears showing up on public beaches to get a drink. Experts urge us to think about extreme temperatures from a pet’s perspective. The heat affects dogs, cats, and other pets in ways humans might not think of—because we don’t have to walk barefoot across burning hot asphalt, for instance. Pet owners “sometimes judge heat by how they feel, and that’s not what we need to do,” veterinarian Barbara Hodges tells Nat Geo. (Pictured above, a dog takes shelter in a beach chair on the German island of Sylt.)

How to keep your pet safe in extreme heat
1. Keep pets inside – especially reptiles that are caged
2. Don’t shave your pet’s fur
3. Walk dogs early in the morning or late at night
4. Never leave your pet in a closed car–even on a mild day
5. Leave ice packs for your pet to lie against
6. Gently dampen your rabbit’s ears with a cool cloth