March 11, 2022 | ACTIVE LIFE | By Jon Lamson
Facing unprecedented levels of wildfire and drought, the global climate crisis is already battering Colorado. According to a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, these adverse impacts could get a whole lot worse if we don’t quickly rein in fossil fuel emissions.
Released last week, the “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” report is a massive 3,000-plus page document looking at the current and anticipated effects of the climate crisis on human and ecological systems. The IPCC released the last assessment of this kind in 2014.
For more context, I spoke with Rachel Bezner Kerr of Cornell University, a co-author of the report. She is a coordinating lead author on the report’s chapter on food systems and ecosystem products, and a drafting author on the report’s Summary for Policymakers.
“It was a daunting task,” Kerr said. “There is an enormous amount of scientific literature, and we’re not just reviewing it, we are assessing and trying to synthesize and come up with key relevant policy relevant information that builds on previous reports, on top of our regular day jobs.”
In this most recent report, the IPCC found that climate change has already driven widespread adverse impacts throughout the globe, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalized communities.
In particular, the authors found increased evidence of the strong link between climate change and extreme events, which can have cascading negative effects. The report cited climate-fueled increases in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, drought, heavy precipitation, and extreme heat.
According to the report, between 3.3 and 3.6 billion people, nearly half of the planet’s population, are highly vulnerable to global climate impacts. Another key finding was that additional emissions will only lead to greater damages and will push human and ecological systems to their limits.
“The timeline for reining in greenhouse gases is very short,” said Kerr. “The window is very small for making these changes to avoid these really severe and widespread impacts.”
Another major take-away from the report is that climate effects are sadistically unequal.
“Those of us in the Global North who’ve benefited more from greenhouse gas emissions, and who have contributed much more, have a greater responsibility,” said Kerr. “The report really highlights that areas that are least responsible for contributing greenhouse gases are those that are being the most affected. But no one is left untouched by climate change at this point.”
While Coloradans are not expected to face the same severity of impacts as many people living in the Global South, adverse climate effects in the state are accelerating.
“Colorado is very vulnerable to climate change, and we are already seeing its impacts,” said Corina McKendry, the director of the Environmental Studies Program at Colorado College. “These include ongoing drought and aridification, increased frequency and severity of forest fires, less reliable snowpack, and increasing high heat events that put vulnerable Coloradans at risk.”
As global emissions continue to rise, the solutions are clear, but the outlook is not.
“It is not too late to act – particularly by dramatically decreasing our use of fossil fuels,” said McKendry. “The sooner we act, the more people and species will be saved. Every part of a degree matters!”