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As climate change wreaks havoc globally, IPCC report flags ways to adapt
(Reuters, 24 Feb 2022) As climate impacts worsen, people are not powerless to protect themselves, a new science report is set to say.
From Madagascar, where hunger is surging after a recent storm destroyed drought-withered crops, to Brazil's historic mountain town of Petropolis, hit by a deluge that has caused about 200 deaths, the impacts of wilder weather are being felt worldwide.
Worse is to come, faster than expected, even if efforts to curb global warming are stepped up, a flagship U.N. climate science report is expected to warn at the end of this month.
Opening an approval meeting for the report, Petteri Taalas, the head of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said the effects of climate change are "already very visible" across the planet, with some areas - particularly in Africa, South Asia and the Pacific islands - especially vulnerable.
Taalas compared still-rising use of planet-heating coal, oil and gas - which fuels stronger and more frequent weather disasters - to performance-enhancing drugs taken by some athletes.
"We have been doping the atmosphere," he said.
But people are not powerless to protect themselves, the new report will say, pointing to solutions that can help keep nature and human society safer from weather extremes, rising sea levels and other climate shifts.
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Reuters, 24 Feb 2022: As climate change wreaks havoc globally, IPCC report flags ways to adapt
