- Title: WRAP: IPCC report says human activity 'indisputible' cause of climate change
- Date: 9th August 2021
- Summary: BAYIRKOY, MARMARIS, TURKEY (AUGUST 8, 2021) (REUTERS) (MUTE) DRONE FOOTAGE OF BLACKENED LANDS, BURNED TREES AND DAMAGED VILLAGE HOUSES STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (AUGUST 9, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SWEDISH CLIMATE ACTIVIST GRETA THUNBERG, SAYING: "We are not talking about the fact that 2021 is currently projected to be the year with the second highest annual emission rise ever. That's not something that if you read, like, newspapers today, it seems like people are doing something; that countries are presenting net zero targets like decades into the future and we are taking action. Now, that's not really the case, though, if you look at the reality. So we need to, that's what we need to be talking about. Of course, also talking about the people who are suffering from the consequences today. But the only way that we can prevent these symptoms from happening is to actually go to the root cause." LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (AUGUST 9, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREENPEACE UK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JOHN SAUVEN, SAYING: "You know, it's a bit like an alarm clock. You can keep switching the alarm clock off but eventually if you don't get out of bed and get going to wherever you're meant to be going to, it will be too late. You won't get there in time. And I think that this is what this report really is saying: listen, the alarm clock has gone off many times. This is probably the last report that will be written before we go through and beyond 1.5 degree C unless we act now and that's quite a stark warning." VENICE, ITALY (AUGUST 8, 2021) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) TOURISTS WALKING THROUGH ST. MARK'S SQUARE WITH WATER TO THEIR ANKLES, DURING HIGH TIDE WHICH IS UNUSUAL FOR THE SEASON COUPLES DANCING TO PIANIST WITH ANKLES SUBMERGED IN WATER OUTSIDE RESTAURANT TOURISTS WADING THROUGH FLOODWATER IN ST. MARK'S SQUARE LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (AUGUST 9, 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GREENPEACE UK EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JOHN SAUVEN, SAYING: "You know, the wildfires out of control in Greece and Turkey, the heat domes in California and you know, British Colombia in Canada, the wildfires out of control in Siberia, the floods in Germany and in China. You just look anywhere around the world and you see climate catastrophe unfolding. All this report is doing really is putting the science behind this, saying that we are now certain that this is human-induced." ELLINIKA, EVIA, GREECE (AUGUST 9, 2021) (REUTERS) FOREST FIRE BURNING LOCAL VOLUNTEERS AND FIREFIGHTERS CUTTING DOWN TREE WITH CHAINSAW AND DIGGER TO MAKE FIREBREAK (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT, RICHARD ALLEN, SAYING: "Climate change is real and the heatwave affected this, we didn't see any rain to stop this fire. If it rained right now, it would be bad for us." TREE BURNING (SOUNDBITE) (English) LOCAL RESIDENT RICHARD ALLEN SAYING: "Childhood memories are burned right now, I used to run in this forest, I used to cycle, we used to go for and collect fruits, now everything is gone." VARIOUS OF CUT BURNING TREES AND ELECTRICITY POLES ON SIDE OF ROAD SAO PAULO, BRAZIL (AUGUST 2021) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) A LEAD AUTHOR OF IPCC REPORT AND AN ENVIRONMENTAL PHYSICIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SAO PAULO, PAULO ARTAXO, SAYING: "Climate change is accelerating quite fast actually now because we're not being able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. So basically we heated up the planet by 1.1 degrees already and probably we're going to reach 1.5 degrees within this decade. So basically this is a strong message that we are changing the climate in an irreversible way, so basically we are damaging the climate in such a way for the next generations that this will certainly make the socio-economic difficulties in the future much, much worse than in our generation."
- Embargoed: 23rd August 2021 16:33
- Keywords: Green Peace Greta Thunberg IPCC Intergovernmental panel on climate change U.N. climate report climate change drought extreme weather flooding forest fires ice melting scientists
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: Various
- Topics: Climate Change,Environment,General News,Government / Politics,Editors' Choice,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00CEPK6LVR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WRAP OF HIGHLIGHTS OF EDITS THAT HAVE ALREADY MOVED. THERE IS NO NEW MATERIAL IN THIS EDIT
Wildfires ravaged many parts of Greece and Turkey on Monday (August 9) as the United Nations panel on climate change told the world that global warming was dangerously close to being out of control - and that humans were "unequivocally" to blame.
Already, greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are high enough to guarantee climate disruption for decades if not centuries, the report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned.
In other words, the deadly heat waves, gargantuan hurricanes and other weather extremes that are already happening will only become more severe.
Fires that broke out during Greece's worst heatwave in three decades last week burned unabated in many parts of the country on Monday.
In the last two weeks, fires have wrought damage on tens of thousands of hectares of forest in Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean provinces, killed eight people and forced thousands of people including tourists to flee.
Monday alone saw 500,000 acres of forest burning in California, while in Venice tourists waded through ankle-deep water in St Mark's Square.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres described the report as a "code red for humanity."
"The alarm bells are deafening," he said in a statement. "This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet."
"The only way that we can prevent these symptoms from happening is to actually go to the root cause," activist Greta Thunberg said in an interview with Reuters.
In three months' time, the U.N. COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, will try to wring much more ambitious climate action out of the nations of the world, and the money to go with it.
Drawing on more than 14,000 scientific studies, the IPCC report gives the most comprehensive and detailed picture yet of how climate change is altering the natural world - and what could still be ahead.
Unless immediate, rapid and large-scale action is taken to reduce emissions, the report says, the average global temperature is likely to reach or cross the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warming threshold within 20 years.
The pledges to cut emissions made so far are nowhere near enough to start reducing level of greenhouse gases - mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning fossil fuels - accumulated in the atmosphere.
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