15.000 scientists:
We are venturing into uncharted climate territory
20 of the 35 vital signs are now showing record extremes
Such anomalies may become more frequent and could have increasingly catastrophic impacts
Energy:
Carbon emissions have continued soaring
Annual coal consumption reaching a near all-time high
Forests:
Global tree cover loss rate declined 9.7%
Humanity is not on track to end and reverse deforestation by 2030
Forests are increasingly threatened by powerful climate feedback loops
Global mean greenhouse gases and temperature:
CO2 is now at 420 ppm (Far above the save limit of 350 ppm)
Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—are all at record levels
2023 is on track to be one of the hottest years on record
Oceans and ice:
Ocean acidity, glacier thickness, and Greenland ice mass all fell to record lows
Sea level rise and ocean heat content rose to record highs
Atlantic meridional overturning circulation could pass a tipping point and start to collapse this century
Climate impacts and extreme weather:
Deadly flash floods in northern India
Record-breaking heat waves in the United States
Exceptionally intense Mediterranean storm that killed thousands of people
China experienced its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years
Economics:
Economic growth, as it is conventionally pursued, is unlikely to allow us to achieve our social, climate, and biodiversity goals
Technological advancements often fall short in mitigating the overall ecological footprint of economic activities
Stopping warming: efforts must be directed toward
Eliminating emissions from fossil fuels and land-use change
Increasing carbon sequestration with nature-based climate solutions
We should not rely on unproven carbon removal techniques
Stopping coal consumption:
Global coal consumption is near record levels
Coal usage in China has accelerated rapidly in the past decades
Support the Powering Past Coal Alliance
Adoption of the international Coal Elimination Treaty
Food security and undernourishment:
Undernourishment is now on the rise
735 million people faced chronic hunger
Hunger could escalate in the absence of immediate climate action
Risks of synchronized harvest failures caused by increased waviness of the jet stream
Efforts are needed to improve crop resilience and resistance to heat, drought, and other climate stressors
A shift toward plant-based diets could improve global food security and help mitigate climate change
Justice:
Impacts of climate change are already catastrophic for many
They disproportionately affect the world's most impoverished individuals
Strive for a convergence in per capita resource and energy consumption
Conclusions:
The truth is that we are shocked by the ferocity of the extreme weather events in 2023
We are afraid of the uncharted territory that we have now entered
This is our moment to make a profound difference for all life on Earth
Possibilities such as a worldwide societal breakdown are feasible and dangerously underexplored
By 2100 an estimated 3 to 6 billion individuals might find themselves confined beyond the livable region
Climate emergency is systemic, existential threat
Challenge the prevailing notion of endless growth and overconsumption
Advocate for reducing resource overconsumption
Transformation of the global economy to prioritize human well-being
Every further 0.1°C increase in future global heating cannot be overstated
Rather than focusing only on carbon reduction and climate change, addressing the underlying issue of ecological overshoot will give us our best shot at surviving
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