Half the world threatened by climate crisis: Latest IPCC report
Hindustan TimesAt least half the world’s population lives in regions vulnerable to the climate crisis, which has become complex, with several interacting factors likely to increase food prices, reduce household incomes, and lead to malnutrition and climate-related deaths, especially in tropical regions, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was released Monday. Mass mortality events on land and ocean, the first climate-driven extinctions, death and disease due to extreme heat -- the climate crisis has already resulted in some irreversible changes, the report added. Several of these impacts are of such a kind that they are beyond the ability to adapt of nature and human life and even a temporary breach of 1.5-degree global warming threshold could be disastrous, IPCC said in its working group II report titled “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” released in Geneva. Since IPCC’s assessment report 5, some impacts have now been attributed to the climate crisis, particularly increased heat-related human deaths; warm-water coral bleaching; increased drought-related tree mortality; increases in areas burned by wildfires; ocean acidification, sea-level rise or regional decreases in rainfall have also been attributed to climate change now.