What About That Recent IPCC Report?  (2022)

The world has been focused since late February on the tragedies of the Ukraine invasion by Russia. The Russian threat and its global impacts, like those associated with COVID, have troubled many Americans.      

The latest Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released around the same time as the initial Ukraine attacks, detailed additional threats.  Reactions to the over 3600-page report by media journalists were often intense and personal.      

Among those reactions are the following: “causes you to lose sleep," "I dare you to be as devastated as I am," “felt utterly demoralized," “should make you mad as hell,” “you want to cry and get involved in electoral politics,” and “makes you really ******* think about the world you are leaving for your kids.”  

Many journalists quoted António Guterres, the current Secretary General of the UN.  Guterres called the report an “atlas of human suffering and damning indictment of failed climate leadership.“  He added, “This abdication of leadership is criminal.”  Rabbi and author Jay Michaelson claimed, “Global climate disruption is not just one more thing to worry about—it is ‘the’ thing to worry about, because it threatens the survival of life on earth and will make every other problem we face that much worse.” 

Not enough people, unfortunately, know about the IPPC itself or many of the conclusions from its latest report.  According to Wikipedia, the IPCC was established in 1988 and endorsed by the UN General Assembly.  It provides more objective and comprehensive scientific information concerning climate change.  Instead of conducting original research or monitoring climate change, the IPCC conducts periodic, systematic reviews of all relevant published literature related to the subject.  Thousands of scientists and other experts review this data and compile key findings into periodic “Assessment Reports."  The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and its previous and the Fifth IPCC Assessment Report was in 2014.  The sixth report draws upon previous and updated research on risks, impacts, vulnerabilities, and social responses to climate change. 

Key conclusions from the recently released report include:  

* The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal that climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health. Any further delay in concerted anticipatory global action on adaptation and mitigation will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all. 

* Evidence of observed impacts, projected risks, levels and trends in vulnerability, and adaptation limits, demonstrate that worldwide climate resilience activities are more urgent than previously assessed in the 2014 report. 

* Even drastic steps will not halt many of the inevitable and very negative impacts of climate change, but urgent actions can still prevent many of the more catastrophic impacts.    

* True adaptation and resilience strategies are required.  Maladaptation approaches, such as constructing seawalls to protect cities from rising sea levels, squander the limited dollars and resources that have been raised to battle the magnitude of effects from climate change.       

* Adaptation efforts so far have been limited in scale and uneven, instead of based on broader and long-term strategies.  incremental approaches will not work at this point.  Massive and transformational energies will be needed for adaptation and resilience in the face of existing and coming threats.  Existing international cooperation and partnerships should be expanded. 

* Climate crises will affect poorer and indigenous people much more than the affluent and those in richer nations and localities.  Yet more greenhouse emissions have come from the more privileged.  The difficult issue of climate justice must be thoughtfully and carefully addressed.   

Science and engineering knowledge exists now to prevent the worse of climate crises, but political will to commit these existing and future resources is still needed.  Must we experience more catastrophes and graver threats to human and ecosystem survival before we make climate change a truly first-level political priority?  

Climate change will impact our state more than perhaps any other state because of our many waterways, coastal areas, and previous ecological damage due to a history of extensive fossil fuel extraction.  The Associated Press quotes Louisiana state climatologist Barry Keim as agreeing with the IPPC report.  Keim comments “Sea level rise poses an existential threat to much of Louisiana, because so much of the Mississippi River delta has been sinking due to human interventions.  The loss of sediment from leveeing the river and saltwater intrusion caused by coastal oil and gas development are two big culprits.” 

Political will for moving beyond reactive and incremental approaches to combat climate change in Louisiana remains a challenge.  Transformational leadership, as urged in the 2022 IPCC report, requires vision and moral commitment for the future.  This vision and commitment must be proclaimed forcefully in public statements by our state political candidates.  Without more of this expressed conviction and actions undertaken as a result, Louisiana residents will suffer greater social and economic losses due to future climate crises than other states.