12 years left

Time is running out. And, it is running out fast.

That is the crux of the new United Nations climate report.

According to the report, dramatic changes in the output of carbon gases will need to be achieved by 2030.

Unless enough is done to curtail climate warming by that time, the world will be faced with a crisis by 2040.

Many of the consequences of a failure to achieve the goals will be dire.

The report places the rising average temperatures as guideposts. In the past, it was considered disastrous if average global temperatures rose two degrees C. It is now thought, at least according to the report, that a mere 1.5 degree C increase will unleash nearly irrecoverable changes. Average world temperature from pre-industrial levels has risen one degree, two-thirds of the way to the tipping point.

Consequences include the melting of the polar ice caps and a subsequent rise in the sea level. That means flooding in many coastal areas and loss of habitable land. The weather will become less predictable with severe storms in all seasons. That will lead to flooding, tremendous snows and violent winds as well as devastating droughts. Concerns then become reliable food supplies. Famine and starvation are likely results. Economic activity will stall.

The changes in the weather will affect more than humans. The coral reefs will continue to die off. Animal and plant species will succumb.

Although the report is new, the predictions are not. In 1957, the International Geophysical Year, the increase of hothouse gases and their consequences were predicted. Jeff Beck, in a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney entitled “A Day in the House,” declared:

We can’t keep dancing along pretending everything is just fine

The consequences are devastating

We must strike out and rescue this

Fine earth upon which we live

Mother nature has suffered far too long and quite enough . . .

This was in 1989.

Until recently, little serious action was taken to derail the human contributions to global warming. Many do not believe human contributions affect warming. Still, many of the consequences that were for so long predicted are coming to pass and coming to pass quickly. Despite general acceptance of the threat, even now coal is being promoted as the fuel of the future, vehicle emission standards are being lowered and ethanol use in gasoline is being increased.

If the report is accurate, a scant 12 years are left to curtail the trends. Trying to meet that deadline may cause disruptions in economies and governments, yet they will not be as serious as the effects if global temperatures continue to rise as they have.