The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report providing multiple options for how the world can survive and adapt to climate change.
"The climate time bomb is ticking," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a press release. "But today's IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity."
The IPCC's Synthesis Report is the most comprehensive document from the agency since the 2015 Paris Agreement and is intended to serve as a set of guidelines for governments around the world to keep warming within 1.5°C.
The agency stressed that carbon emissions have only increased since the agency established that temperature limit in 2018. Global temperatures are currently 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, which the agency said has caused more frequent and intense extreme weather events around the world.
"Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits," said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. "This [report] underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that, if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all."
The UN panel is calling for "climate resilient development" to reduce emissions and increased investment in developing clean energy sources and new transportation options that emphasize walking, cycling, and public transport.
"Transformational changes are more likely to succeed where there is trust, where everyone works together to prioritize risk reduction, and where benefits and burdens are shared equitably," Lee said. "We live in a diverse world in which everyone has different responsibilities and different opportunities to bring about change. Some can do a lot while others will need support to help them manage the change."
A new study shows that Americans feel record levels of stress amid inflation and global uncertainty about the war in Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Lynn Bufka of the American Psychological Association about how to best put your worries aside.
Colgate-Palmolive is shedding light on the little-known fact that oral health is integral to overall health. The consumer products company will commit $100 million over five years to transform the way the world thinks about and addresses oral health. Maria Ryan, Chief Clinical Officer at Colgate-Palmolive, discusses why oral health is so vital to our physical and mental well-being.
Scientists say they have found the sunken wreck of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, more than a century after it was lost to the Antarctic ice.
Researchers say a large spider native to East Asia that proliferated in Georgia last year could spread to much of the East Coast. The Joro spider’s golden web took over yards all over north Georgia in 2021, unnerving some residents.
News of Russian forces taking control of a Ukrainian after artillery bombardment of a nuclear power plant raised concerns this week. Nuclear policy expert and Quincy Institute Distinguished Fellow Joe Cirincione joined Cheddar News to discuss the implications for a potential disaster. “I’m with the director general of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He says that he is extremely concerned, and that this Russian attack is a severe risk and that Russia clearly violated the fundamental principle of preserving the integrity of nuclear power plants," Cirincione said.
Adam Battle, research assistant at University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, joins Cheddar News to discuss space junk heading to the moon and if more should be done to prevent space junk in the future.
UN and Ukrainian officials say no radiation was released from a Russian attack at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and firefighters have extinguished a blaze at the facility..
Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), corn-based ethanol has been mixed into gasoline sold at pumps in the U.S. since 2005, when a policy was enacted aimed at reducing emissions. Corn-based ethanol had been thought to be a relatively greener energy source compared to other biofuels, but now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports it may be actually worse for the climate than straight gasoline. Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Sustainability, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell and discussed the pushback against the study. "Essentially when you need to produce more corn to meet the demand for use as ethanol as fuel, farmers respond and they switch more crops like soybeans and wheat into corn," Lark said. "They also bring more land into production, so things that used to be pasture grassland, and both those activities are associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions."
Caroline Hickman, lecturer at University of Bath and psychosocial researcher on climate change, joins Cheddar News to discuss climate change's impact on mental health.
