Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:
It is of no matter that the world has agreed to cut emissions of greenhouse gasses to avoid catastrophic climate change because human made carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere at a rate ten times faster than at any point in the last 66 million years. New research from the World Meteorological Organisation has shown that the world has entered an unprecedented phase and the consequences for life are likely to be more serious than anything since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
In its ‘Statement of the Climate Report’ the organisation has warned of the alarming rate of climate change as result of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide levels in 2014 reached a record level of almost 400 parts per million which is 43% above pre-industrial levels. Many researchers look upon this as a new geological era and name it the ‘Anthropocene’ but so new is this era that there are no geological records that may be able to predict the impacts of the present climate change.
2015 was the hottest year on record, driven by long term climate change. As a result, devastating heat waves occurred in many places; in the southern Indian states 2,000 people were killed. In contrast, many areas saw record rainfall – 11months’ worth of rain fell in one day in Libya and Marrakech in Morocco saw 13 months of rain in one hour last August. Scientists are already alarmed by the high temperatures recorded in the early months of 2016 when records were shattered.
Victoria Nicholls. Transition Deal.
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