very informative On Oct 10, 2018 7:57 PM, "IT for Change - Education" < itfc.educat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As teachers we have to bring in climate change / global warming into our > classes ... and support students and communities to adopt habits that can > conserve our environment .... the mantra is re-use, recycle, repair ...... > we have to reduce our consumption as well .... > > This is what the wise people always said .... 'simple living, high > thinking' and this lesson needs to be learnt and lived by all of us now > .... > > regards, > > Guru > > *************** > > On Sunday night, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change > dropped an urgent report on the state of global warming > <https://www.wired.com/story/guide-climate-change/>. Simply put: The laws > of the physical universe say that we can keep global warming to 1.5 degrees > Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the optimistic goal set out in the Paris > Agreement <https://www.wired.com/2017/06/us-leaves-paris-accord/>, but > we’re quickly running out of time. As in, we may reach that 1.5 in as > little as a dozen years at the rate we’re spewing emissions. And the > consequences will be disastrous. > > To correct course and avoid 1.5 C, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, we’ll need > to cut emissions by half before 2030, and go carbon-neutral by 2050, the > report says. That gives us three decades to transform our energy production > into something unrecognizable, with renewable energy galore combined with > carbon capture techniques like the bolstering of forests, and maybe even > sucking the stuff out of the atmosphere and trapping it underground. We’ll > have to change our behavior as individuals, too. Meaning, we’re looking at > unprecedented change, what is essentially the restructuring of civilization. > > “The report has sent a very clear message that if we don't act now and > have substantial reductions in carbon dioxide emissions over the next > decade, we are really making it very challenging to impossible to keep > warming below 1.5 degrees,” said the IPCC’s Jim Skea at a press conference > announcing the report, a massive survey <http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/> > by almost 100 authors (and 1,000 reviewers) citing 6,000 studies. > > The 2015 Paris Agreement included the 1.5 goal at the urging of island > nations, which rising seas are threatening to drown > <https://www.newscientist.com/article/2146594-eight-low-lying-pacific-islands-swallowed-whole-by-rising-seas/>. > The less ambitious—though still very daunting—goal is 2 degrees. > > Which, according to this new report, would be far more ruinous. At 2 > degrees, 10 million more people will be at risk of rising seas than at 1.5 > degrees. That extra half a degree also means significantly larger > populations will be exposed to water shortages. You’re looking at an ever > greater loss of biodiversity, worsening storms, ever more people thrust > into poverty, and relentlessly shrinking yields for essential crops like > rice and maize and wheat. > > Basically, a difference of just half a degree may not seem like much when > you’re choosing what to wear for the day, but it’s going to make climate > change far, far worse, a point this report drives home in exhaustive > detail. “It shows that half a degree of global warming does matter and that > limiting it to 1.5°C instead of 2°C would avoid several impacts, including > increases in heatwaves and hot extremes in most inhabited regions, heavy > precipitation in several regions, and droughts in some regions,” says Sonia > Seneviratne, a climate change scientist at ETH Zurich. Plus, limiting > warming would avoid certain irreversible changes related to sea level rise > and the destruction of coral reefs. > > “Even more importantly,” Seneviratne adds, “it shows that limiting global > warming to 1.5°C is still physically possible and could be in principle > achieved, although it requires rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented > changes in all aspects of society.” > > Still, the outlook is grim. The technological and social change the world > needs dwarfs anything that’s come before in history. “It's not a happy > report,” says Thanu Yakupitiyage, spokesperson for the climate advocacy > group 350.org <https://350.org/>. “They're reporting on the real needs of > the now. We are in the middle of the climate crisis.” > > “At the end of the day, what we're talking about is millions of lives at > stake,” Yakupitiyage adds. “We're already seeing the ways in which people > are impacted by heat waves, by rising sea levels, by wildfires, by > hurricanes.” > > The Paris Agreement is a remarkable act of international cooperation to > address climate change and these consequences of it, but the pledges made > by individual nations are not enough to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, this > report argues. It also makes clear that it’s not enough to promise that > we’ll put more electric cars on the road, or mothball our coal energy > plants, or that we’ll invest in more solar farms. Hitting that target will > demand a massive rethinking of global energy consumption within a decade. > > A bit of borderline rosy news here: While the world at large may be > struggling to meet the ambition of the Paris Agreement, cities have been > leading > the way in cutting emissions > <https://www.wired.com/story/at-the-edge-of-the-world-facing-the-end-of-the-world/>, > competing with each other to deploy technologies like electric cars on > massive scales, but also sharing knowledge of what works and what doesn’t > when it comes to fighting climate change. Consider that in 2016 alone, Los > Angeles cut its emissions by 11 percent, the equivalent of yanking 700,000 > cars off the road. All the while, its economy actually grew > <https://www.wired.com/story/how-los-angeles-is-helping-lead-the-fight-against-climate-change/> > . > > The IPCC report could be coming at a particularly convenient time. In > December, leaders will gather in Poland for COP24 <http://cop24.gov.pl/>, > known more formally as the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United > Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. And let’s just say they > won’t *not* be talking about this new report. > > Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Geoengineering > Governance Initiative <https://www.c2g2.net/> and former UN assistant > secretary-general for climate change, predicts that meeting “will be a > significant next step to see what governments actually say in the context > of the climate negotiations about this report.” > > The starkness of the report may also spark talk of more elaborate > strategies for fighting climate change than cutting emissions. Scientists > are also toying with the notion of geoengineering > <https://www.wired.com/story/the-us-flirts-with-geoengineering/>. This > could entail carbon capture techniques or solar geoengineering to bounce > the sun’s radiation back into space by spraying aerosols in the atmosphere > or by brightening clouds. > > “There will be some pressure from some corners to increasingly look at > options like solar geoengineering,” says Pasztor. “That's a fact of life. > That doesn't mean necessarily that we will have to *use* solar > geoengineering, but if you want to prudently manage global climate risk, > then it's fair to say that one needs to look at all the options.” > > Geoengineering, though, comes with a slew of potential problems. You might > spray foam on the ocean surface to reflect light back into space, but that > could > also change the weather > <https://www.wired.com/story/the-sea-could-save-us-from-ourselves/>. And > the issue with such solar radiation management, or SRM, is that even in the > best case, it doesn’t address the underlying problem. “Once emitted, CO2 > stays in the atmosphere for millennia,” says Seneviratne. “Any approach > related to SRM only mitigates some of the symptoms of climate change, but > not its root cause, which is the elevated CO2 concentrations.” That means > issues like ocean acidification, which is inflicting wide-ranging harm on > marine life, would remain unaddressed. > > Again, we aren’t going to geoengineer our way out of this mess—cutting > emissions is our number one priority. But as this new report makes > abundantly clear, the disease we’ve unleashed on this planet is only > getting worse, and we aren’t doing nearly enough to find the cure. > > source - https://www.wired.com/story/we-need-massive-change-to- > avoid-climate-hell/?CNDID=52749757&mbid=nl_100918_daily_list1_p4 > Guru, > > Education Team > IT for Change > Bangalore > www.ITforChange.net > 080 26654134 > > -- > ----------- > 1.ವಿಷಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ವೇದಿಕೆಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಲು ಈ ಅರ್ಜಿಯನ್ನು ತುಂಬಿರಿ. > - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevqRdFngjbDtOF8YxgeXeL > 8xF62rdXuLpGJIhK6qzMaJ_Dcw/viewform > 2. ಇಮೇಲ್ ಕಳುಹಿಸುವಾಗ ಗಮನಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ. > -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/index.php/ವಿಷಯಶಿಕ್ > ಷಕರವೇದಿಕೆ_ಸದಸ್ಯರ_ಇಮೇಲ್_ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿ > 3. ಐ.ಸಿ.ಟಿ ಸಾಕ್ಷರತೆ ಬಗೆಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಪುಟಕ್ಕೆ ಭೇಟಿ > ನೀಡಿ - > http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy > 4.ನೀವು ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ಬಳಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರಾ ? ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ > ತಿಳಿಯಲು -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/ > Public_Software > ----------- > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "EnglishSTF" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to englishstf+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to englishstf@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- ----------- 1.ವಿಷಯ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರ ವೇದಿಕೆಗೆ ಶಿಕ್ಷಕರನ್ನು ಸೇರಿಸಲು ಈ ಅರ್ಜಿಯನ್ನು ತುಂಬಿರಿ. - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSevqRdFngjbDtOF8YxgeXeL8xF62rdXuLpGJIhK6qzMaJ_Dcw/viewform 2. ಇಮೇಲ್ ಕಳುಹಿಸುವಾಗ ಗಮನಿಸಬೇಕಾದ ಕೆಲವು ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿಗಳನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿ. -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/index.php/ವಿಷಯಶಿಕ್ಷಕರವೇದಿಕೆ_ಸದಸ್ಯರ_ಇಮೇಲ್_ಮಾರ್ಗಸೂಚಿ 3. ಐ.ಸಿ.ಟಿ ಸಾಕ್ಷರತೆ ಬಗೆಗೆ ಯಾವುದೇ ರೀತಿಯ ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆಗಳಿದ್ದಲ್ಲಿ ಈ ಪುಟಕ್ಕೆ ಭೇಟಿ ನೀಡಿ - http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Portal:ICT_Literacy 4.ನೀವು ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶ ಬಳಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದೀರಾ ? ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ತಂತ್ರಾಂಶದ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿಯಲು -http://karnatakaeducation.org.in/KOER/en/index.php/Public_Software ----------- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "EnglishSTF" group. 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