Other findings in this new report are that sea level might rise by as much as six feet by 2100 instead of 1.5 feet, and the Arctic may experience a sea-ice summer by 2030, rather than by the end of the century.
We Must ALL do Everything We Can
The news may be dire, but it serves as a very important wake up call for world leaders as they prepare to attend climate treaty negotiations in December. Every country must enact the very strongest legislation to help curb the worst effects of global warming. The time for action is now.
Global Warming is happening NOW
Human activity is damaging the earth's climate. Already in the United States, farmers are struggling with worsening droughts and crop failures. Firefighters are battling historic blazes in the West. Our country's best scientists warn us that we're approaching a tipping point, and that unless we act immediately, the crisis will only get worse and future generations will inherit a planet dramatically different from the one we grew up in.
Weak Legislation Equals Catastrophe
So far President Obama has been absent while oil and coal companies have dictated the terms of the climate debate in Congress. This is unacceptable. The President must deliver on his campaign pledge to set climate policy based on science, not politics, and if necessary use his considerable executive authority to make sure the U.S. does its part to stop global warming. Without his leadership, the corporate polluters will continue to highjack this process and ensure that we won't have the policies to combat global warming.
Copenhagen Can Turn the Tide
In December, the United Nations will hold a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark to establish how the world is going to deal with climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, which every industrialized nation except the United States agreed to, is expiring soon, and the world is desperate for US leadership this time around. Greenpeace is calling on heads of state to personally commit to attend the Copenhagen negotiations to ensure a fair, ambitious, and binding deal is reached.
To avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, countries need to enact a legally binding treaty that reduces global warming pollution enough to keep the world from warming 2 degrees.
The bulk of those cuts need to be made in the industrialized world, which is responsible for most of the problem and has the resources to deal with the problem. Wealthy nations like the US also need to help poorer countries to develop using clean energy like wind and solar instead of coal.
And perhaps most importantly, the world needs to agree to a plan to stop deforestation, which is responsible for more of the climate change problem than all of the planes, trains and automobiles in the world, combined. President Obama must go to the Copenhagen negotiations and push for a climate treaty that is based in science-not political convenience.
You can read the report online at: http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
Take Action
Tell President Obama that you are ready for him and other world leaders to sign a global climate deal in Copenhagen that’s ambitious, fair and binding.