Climate scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are in utter despair over what they see as government inaction on climate change, at least according to a report from the U.K.’s The Guardian. Some are warning of “catastrophic” levels of global warming should the world not yield to their demand that the planet somehow get off of fossil fuels and stop releasing supposedly harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
The scientists tell dark tales of depression and lament that they’re not able to get their point across to nations more interested in economic development than saving the planet. According to The Guardian, at least 77 percent of those surveyed think that global temperatures will reach at least 2.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, far above the 1.5ºC that the Paris agreement had hoped for. Forty-two percent believe that warming will ultimately be above 3ºC, and only six percent think it’s still possible to hold global warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels.
“The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is hanging by a thread,” said a spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The battle to keep 1.5C alive will be won or lost in the 2020s — under the watch of political and industry leaders today. They need to realize we are on the verge of the abyss. The science is clear and so are the world’s scientists: the stakes for all humanity could not be higher.”
The 1.5ºC limit that everyone is so concerned about was originally championed by the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and their members are especially worried as they fear sinking into the ocean as global warming becomes worse.
“Our islands are quite literally sinking as the temperatures rise. The lack of ambition on climate change from bigger countries is consigning our states to a reality of devastating loss,” said AOSIS chair Fatumanava Pa’olelei Luteru.
Apparently, a recent study showing that the low-lying Maldives, an AOSIS member, were actually growing and not sinking into the ocean was unconvincing. A 2021 study stressed “a predominantly stable or accretionary trend in the area of atoll islands worldwide.” Even Tuvalu, another AOSIS member, which Al Gore assured us was doomed to a watery death in his fantasy film An Inconvenient Truth, is actually growing.
Governments have become subservient to fossil-fuel interests, climate zealots claim.
“For decades, governments, especially in rich countries, have consistently prioritized the fossil fuel industry’s interests over the well-being of their people. We have a narrow window to avert the worst outcomes, but it requires urgent, transformative policies that prioritize the well-being of people and the planet over profit,” said Harjeet Singh of the climate alarm organization Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative.
IPCC scientists issued stark warnings, especially for the southern hemisphere. An unnamed South African scientists quoted by The Guardian said, “I expect a semi-dystopian future with substantial pain and suffering for the people of the global south.”
The unnamed scientist added, “The world’s response to date is reprehensible — we live in an age of fools.”
Among those “fools” are more than a thousand scientists, including at least two Nobel Prize winners, who assure us “There is no climate emergency.” Their declaration states that “there is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm,” and they further insist that “climate science should be less political.”
