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James Renwick, co-author of the upcoming 2021 United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) report and head of the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand, joins Earth911 to debate the prospects for coastal flooding because of local weather change. He shares troubling however necessary insights into how a lot seas have already risen because the 1800s — about one foot — and the potential for as much as two toes extra flooding within the coming century. He additionally reviews the UNIPCC will acknowledge that the crucial 1.5C warming threshold is locked in until the world takes radical motion to scale back emissions instantly. Humanity has already dedicated future generations to probably disastrous local weather impacts, he says.
Renwick explains how a lot water is saved in Antarctica and the projections for financial and housing losses alongside the U.S. East Coast, which is especially susceptible to flooding due to the configuration of ocean currents. He additionally discusses the rising accuracy of local weather fashions and the way accelerated warming seen lately seems poised to proceed dashing ice loss on the poles. But, Renwick argues, the worldwide local weather dialogue has shifted from resistance to acknowledgment of local weather impacts and rising nationwide and native motion, which supplies him hope. “Things are transferring in the fitting route,” he informed Earth911’s Mitch Ratcliffe. “But we’ve received loads of work to do.”
The upcoming COP26 assembly of world leaders, which was postponed to the autumn of 2021 as a result of pandemic, will characteristic many countries’ elevated commitments to scale back emissions. In the meantime, he urges particular person residents to talk out and select sustainably produced merchandise, in addition to help efficient native remediation tasks, corresponding to tree-planting applications. Each of us could make a distinction. Start your journey with this dialog with Professor James Renwick.
This podcast initially aired on January 1, 2021.
