So Michael Mendez, a professor at University of California Irvine, says pay attention to your body and the signs of overheating. In the meantime, we have to build resilience for the climate shocks that we're seeing right now.ĬHANG: But what does building resilience look like, Julia? And what about people who are facing imminent danger? What are solutions for them? So scientists like Cobb say we have to reverse the trend. Emissions are going up every year - not by much but by a little. The question is how hot is the planet going to get? And that's where we come back to that main climate solution, which is to stop burning fossil fuels. And humans have emitted so much that a certain amount of warming is going to happen no matter what. They hang out in the atmosphere for several years. Well, what does she mean by that - like, some of that warming is already baked in? Still, Cobb says that we're in a situation where we're going to keep experiencing extreme weather events over the next few decades.ĬHANG: No matter what. John Kerry, the president's special climate envoy, is currently in China. is also engaging other countries when it comes to climate. KIM COBB: The new federal legislation, which really puts the wheels of the marketplace in motion to harness available technologies for emissions reduction - so that's huge and is already getting to work for us. Kim Cobb is a climate scientist at Brown University, and she says the law is a big deal. has dragged its feet for years, but last year the country took serious action on climate change by passing the Inflation Reduction Act. We also have to think about energy efficiency and eating less meat.ĬHANG: Are we doing those things enough, though? That means building out infrastructure for public transportation, electric vehicles. So that means things like replacing coal and gas power plants with solar and wind plus batteries. By far, reducing our use of fossil fuels is the big climate solution. But, like, what strategies could rein in the causes of climate change? I mean, I'm guessing cutting back on fossil fuels is the biggest one, right? It's a wake-up call to how bad things are getting with climate change.ĬHANG: OK, so it's another wake-up call. Heat records are falling around the world - in Iran, China. If they do, they don't always run it because it's so expensive. SIMON: Well, my car was 116 degrees yesterday. Hey, Julia.ĬHANG: OK, so you're in Phoenix right now. NPR climate solutions reporter Julia Simon is here with more. So how fast can we rein in that trend, and how ready are we to adapt to these extreme events? That is not an accurate picture because humans are still pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and that is predicted to make the types of heat waves and floods that we're seeing today even more frequent and more severe. But the phrase new normal assumes that we've reached some sort of equilibrium, that this new reality is as bad as it's ever going to get. Lots of people are calling what we're going through now the new normal - you know, heat waves, flooding, wildfires.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |