Learn about climate change
There is a strong scientific consensus that climate change is caused by human action and will very likely have catastrophic consequences if not tackled urgently (with the poor suffering the most). The world needs a fair, ambitious and legally binding global agreement in the COP21 summit at Paris to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 degree Celsius (relative to pre-industrial levels).
The latest scientific findings are best summarized in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is the internationally accepted authority on climate change scientific matters, operating in a peer-reviewed format and leveraging the inputs of thousands of scientists and other experts. This report was explicitly supported by all governments of the world including oil producer states (as they all participate in the UNFCCC process) and by many Vatican statements.
Everybody agrees on the urgency and severity of the climate crisis.
The latest climate change IPCC report is summarized in this document and in this official IPCC video:
Here is another great video illustrating how global temperature is dangerously increasing:
The recent Paris Agreement was an important but insufficient step to limit global warming:
Find a list of the countries which have ratified the COP 21 agreement here.
More resources on the science of human-induced climate change:
- Summary of climate change evidence, by NASA.
- IPCC infographics and interactive visualization of carbon emissions, by WRI.
- Climate change FAQs, by Road to Paris.
- Health Impacts of climate change: Lancet report and video.
- Arctic Sea Ice Volume 1979-2012 (video)
- The difference between weather and climate (video).
- History of atmospheric carbon dioxide (for the past 800,000 years), by NOAA (aggregated NOAA resources here).
More resources on how to transition to a low-carbon economy:
- Pathways to Deep Decarbonization report, by U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
- New Climate Economy report.
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