The planet’s vital signs are flashing red, global heating accelerating

Contributing author Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, professor of climate science at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University, said the report added to “very strong evidence that climate change is accelerating” due to the amount of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere and new emissions.

The report comes as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who funds climate action through his philanthropic work, wrote an essay rejecting the “apocalyptic view of climate change” and arguing that human well-being should be at the heart of climate strategies.

Communicating about climate science is a difficult balance, Perkins-Kirkpatrick said.

“We have to be careful not to be alarmists. Otherwise, it will just immobilize people; they will be so scared and depressed about this whole situation that they won’t be able to do anything,” he said. “We must also be honest and realistic: even in Australia, where we have a net zero target by 2050, we are not doing enough to reduce our emissions, let alone the dumpster fire-ridden US.”

The article determines which climate solutions will have the biggest impact, based on analysis of global data from US-based non-profit Project Drawdown. Solar energy ranked highest, followed by reduced conversion of forests and other ecosystems, wind energy and carbon sequestration in agriculture.

Collectively, the 43 solutions, which include a proposal to promote plant-based diets, could meet more than half the mitigation measures needed to limit warming to the Paris Agreement target of no more than 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, rather than the 2.7 degrees the planet is on track to reach by 2100 under current policies.

The Climate Council warned on Wednesday that any agreement between the Albanian government and the Coalition on national environmental law reform was risky, given that the opposition is debating whether to oppose a net-zero target.

“Partnering with a party that still struggles with climate denial would be a dangerous bet for Australia’s future,” Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie said in a statement.

Climate Council analysis suggests that abandoning net-zero emissions, as advocated by some members of the Coalition, could lead to 6.3 billion tonnes of climate pollution and be compatible with 3 degrees of global warming.

Global warming is accelerating because of feedback loops — “where one event occurs and then sets off a chain of events that amplifies that initial impact,” Perkins-Kirkpatrick said.

“For example, we have more carbon [dioxide] in the atmosphere and this causes the planet to warm up,” he said. “This causes the Arctic to warm [and Antarctic] “As sea ice will melt and reveal darker ocean, this will absorb more heat and increase the warming that occurred in the first place.”

Ocean heat has also devastated marine ecosystems that are ill-equipped to cope with warmer water.

Atmospheric temperatures are rising on global average, but faster over land than over sea, and large continental landmasses in the northern hemisphere are coming off the worst, with deadly heat waves and wildfires, said Perkins-Kirkpatrick.

“Australia’s average temperature is rising slightly faster [than average]”But we are not as bad as Southern Europe, which is warming twice as fast as the global average, or as some parts of the Arctic, which are warming three times faster than the global average,” he said.

A separate article published by a medical journal compiling research on the health effects of pollution, disease, and heat Lancet On Wednesday, it was reported that deaths caused by global warming have increased by 23 percent since 1990, to 546,000.

Australians endure an average of 8.1 heatwave days in 2024; 5.4 of these are directly attributable to climate change, causing deaths, heat stress and loss of working hours.

The annual number of heat-related deaths in Australia increased by 44 per cent from the decade 1990-1999 to the decade 2012-2021, after adjusting for the increase in total deaths resulting from population growth.

Globally, 2.5 million deaths each year are caused by air pollution from fossil fuels, while governments collectively spent US$956 billion ($1.45 trillion) on fossil fuel subsidies in 2023.

COP30 Presidency last week He called on countries to “consider adaptation as the next step in human evolution.”

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