Climate Change Time Crunch

We've been hearing the phrases "cimate change" and "global warming" thrown around without really knowing what they mean, but now it's more important than ever to understand the effect that climate change will have on our way of life.

According to U.N. scientists, the world has just over ten years to get climate change under control. It's been reported that there isn't any documented precedent for the amount of change that will have to occur in order to stop the temperature of the planet from rising. The transformation would have to be drastic and far-reaching, as mentioned in a report requested as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

However, there is hope. A goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius has been put in place, and if emissions stopped today the planet would not warm by this much. Scientists have notified their governments of what measures need to be taken to stop the rise in temperature, and now all they can do is hope that officials act on them. The world's CO2 emissions would have to be on a steady decline by 2030 to hold the world below the aforementioned temperature, or allow for a very slight overshoot. The report calls for a reduction of 1 billion tons in emission and a near-total phasing out of coal burning. More trees would have to be planted on areas of land that are currently being used to produce food, and programs would have to be put in place to reduce the amount of emissions that are presently in the air. The technology for this reportedly exists, but hasn't caught on yet.

If the planet warms by another 1.5-2 degrees Celsius, temperatures could become intolerable in some parts of the world and weather will become more extreme. To prevent this happening so soon, more renewable sources of energy will have to come into use.