Earth Today | Nature, a victim

AS THE world approaches another Earth Day celebration (April 22), there is a sobering reminder of the bruising realities of nature loss associated with climate change.

This is reflected in the Synthesis Report of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report reflects the latest science of climate change, including findings from three special reports of the IPCC that looked at global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius; climate change and land; and the ocean and the cryosphere.

“Climate change has caused substantial damage, and increasingly irreversible losses in terrestrial, freshwater, cryospheric and coastal and open ocean ecosystems,” reads the report, which was recently made available to the public.

“The extent and magnitude of climate change impacts”, it noted, are in fact “larger than estimated in previous assessments”.

“Approximately half of the species assessed globally have shifted polewards or, on land, also to higher elevations. Biological responses, including changes in geographic placement and shifting seasonal timing are often not sufficient to cope with recent climate change,” the report explained.

“Hundreds of local losses of species have been driven by increases in the magnitude of heat extremes and mass mortality events on land and in the ocean. Impacts on some ecosystems are approaching irreversibility such as the impacts of hydrological changes resulting from the retreat of glaciers, or the changes in some mountain and Arctic ecosystems driven by permafrost thaw,” it added.

The ongoing warming of the planet – due to human activities, notably the high consumption of fossil fuels – is one of the pervasive signs of a changing climate to which countries, and in particular small island developing states, are vulnerable.

Together with rising global temperatures is not only species loss associated with impacts such as increased sea levels, ocean acidification and extreme weather events, but also food and freshwater security risks and threats to public health.

“Nearly 50 per cent of coastal wetlands have been lost over the last 100 years, as a result of the combined effects of localised human pressures, sea level rise, warming and extreme climate events,” said the IPCC report, which is still subject to final copy editing and layout.

Climate change has reduced food security and affected water security due to warming, changing precipitation patterns, reduction and loss of cryospheric elements, and greater frequency and intensity of climatic extremes, thereby hindering efforts to meet sustainable development goals, it noted.

“Although overall agricultural productivity has increased, climate change has slowed this growth in agricultural productivity over the past 50 years globally, with related negative crop yield impacts mainly recorded in mid- and low latitude regions, and some positive impacts in some high latitude regions,” it said further.

And there are other noted impacts, including increasing ocean temperatures that have contributed “to an overall decrease in maximum catch potential, compounding the impacts from overfishing for some fish stocks”.

This is while food production from shellfish aquaculture and fisheries in some oceanic regions are undermined.

“Roughly half of the world’s population currently experiences severe water scarcity for at least some part of the year due to a combination of climatic and non-climatic drivers,” the report said.

“Increasing weather and climate extreme events have exposed millions of people to acute food insecurity and reduced water security, with the largest impacts observed in many locations and/or communities in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, least developed countries, small islands and the Arctic, and for small-scale food producers, low-income households and indigenous peoples globally,” it added.

According to the report, important gains have been made in the response to these realities over the years – including global agreements, national ambition for climate action and growing public awareness.

Still, there are miles to go to get and stay ahead of the climate crisis – including the requirement for significantly scaled up and sustained adaptation interventions.

“Despite progress, adaptation gaps persist, with many initiatives prioritising short-term risk reduction, hindering transformational adaptation. Hard and soft limits to adaptation are being reached in some sectors and regions, while maladaptation is also increasing and disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups,” the report said.

pwr.gleaner@gmail.com