The United Nations released a blistering report Monday predicting that global temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent.
But whether or not this alarm will actually push politicians to act remains to be seen. KCBS Political Analyst Marc Sandalow shared his thoughts on what this report means for governments worldwide.
According to Sandalow, this is the first report the UN has put out on the issue in three years. A compilation of 14,000 other scientific studies, "this is a big piece of work," he said.
"There is no doubt that human activity has created global warming," said Sandalow. That’s not news. But what is different about this report, which is essentially, "code red for planet earth," is that there is essentially nothing that can be done to stop it.
United States residents in most states don’t feel that climate change will affect them personally, said Sandalow. The only state where more than half said they felt climate change affected them personally was California, for painfully obvious reasons, like wildfires, he said.
As a result, he said it’s difficult to convince people to take action on something they aren’t convinced will affect them in this lifetime. "It’s virtually impossible in our current political system."
With things continuing at the current rate, it’s likely that extreme weather conditions and natural disasters will also increase at an accelerated rate.
"People have to understand, the earth doesn’t look like it, but the earth is round," he said. "At a certain point, you have to stop believing what your instincts might tell you and what you see, and listen to the scientists who spend their careers working on this actually tell us."
Related
