UN Report: ‘Nowhere to Run’ from Global Warming

The United Nations called a "code red for humanity" in a recently released report on climate change. A "code red" describes a serious emergency.

The U.N. report said the Earth's atmosphere is getting so hot that temperatures in 10 years will probably pass a dangerous level.

Linda Mearns is a climate scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric¹ Research and a co-writer of the report. She said, "It's just guaranteed that it's going to get worse. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide."

But scientists also reduced their predictions of the worst climate disasters.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group formed by the U.N., released the report which calls climate change human-caused. The IPCC makes more exact predictions for the next 80 years than it did the last time it released a report in 2013.

The UN group predicts five possible situations that might take place in the future. They are based on how much carbon gas emissions² are cut by nations around the world.

Each one of the possible situations meets the warming levels set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

In that agreement, many world leaders said they would try to limit the average warming of the Earth's atmosphere. The number was set at 1.5 degrees Celsius³ above the average temperature levels in the 1800s before industrialization spread around the world. The Paris climate agreement also talked about permitting a 2-degree rise in the Earth's average temperature. The report's scientists said the atmosphere has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius since then.

Under each possible situation, the report said, the world will cross the 1.5-degree-Celsius mark in the 2030s. That is earlier than some past predictions. The report's scientists said warming has increased in recent years.

Valerie Masson-Delmotte is the co-chair of the report. She also is a climate scientist at France's Laboratory of Climate and Environment Sciences at the University of Paris-Saclay. She said, "Our report shows that we need to be prepared for going into that level of warming in the coming decades. But we can avoid further levels of warming by acting⁴ on greenhouse gas emissions."

In three of the five possible situations, worldwide average temperatures will warm by more than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times. That is the higher temperature limit under the Paris climate agreement. The scientists predict reaching this level will cause severe heat waves, droughts and flooding rainstorms. The report warns this will happen unless nations sharply cut their carbon gas emissions.

IPCC Vice⁵ Chair Ko Barrett is a climate adviser⁶ for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "This report tells us that recent changes in the climate are widespread, rapid and intensifying⁷, unprecedented⁸ in thousands of years," he said.

Worldwide meeting to come in Scotland

International climate negotiations⁹ are expected to take place in Scotland in November. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the report "a stark¹⁰ reminder¹¹."

The U.N. says 721 experts took part in the report which is nearly 4,000 pages long. It said the warming atmosphere is already causing many unusual and harmful weather events. All these events will get worse, the report said. In some places, warming is causing more than one problem at a time.

Examples of places with such dangerous weather are the Western U.S., where heat waves, drought and wildfires increase the damage, Mearns said. Extreme heat is also causing fires in Greece and Turkey.

Cutting methane¹² is one way to reduce warming

Mason-Delmotte said improvement in understanding of how fast the world warms with each ton of carbon dioxide emitted enables scientists to be far more exact in their predictions of the future.

Zeke Hausfather is a co-writer of the report and a climate scientist with the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group in California. He said, the chances of "ending up in a much worse place than we expected if we do reduce our emissions are notably¹³ lower."

Scientists said cutting levels of methane in the atmosphere could help reduce short-term warming. Methane is a biological carbon gas. Farm animals produce large amounts of the gas. Leaks of natural gas pipelines¹⁴ are also considered a problem.

Net-zero by 2050

More than 100 countries have made unofficial promises to reach "net zero" human-caused carbon dioxide emissions sometime around 2050. Those promises will be a part of the negotiations in Scotland. The report said those promises are necessary.

IPCC Vice Chair Barrett said it is still possible to avoid most of the worst possible results.

Words in This Story

emissions – n. something sent out or given off, such as the harmful substances released into the air by automobiles¹⁵

decade – n. a period of ten years

greenhouse gas –n. a gas that is believed to cause warming temperatures in the Earth's atmosphere

drought – n. a period without enough rain to support living things

unprecedented –adj. not done or experienced before

stark – adj. unpleasant and difficult to accept or experience

1 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 intensifying   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉

参考例句：

• The allies are intensifying their air campaign. 联军部队正加大他们的空战强度。 来自辞典例句
• The rest of the European powers were in a state of intensifying congestion. 其余的欧洲强国则处于越来越拥挤的状态。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

8 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

9 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

10 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

11 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

12 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

13 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

14 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

15 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》