Sep 28, 2025 08:22 PM
https://www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-un...of-extreme
EXCERPTS: A new analysis issued by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) found that the evidence linking rising greenhouse gas emissions to negative human health outcomes is “beyond scientific dispute.” Climate change is real and it has already resulted in major damage.
The main cause is increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all from human activities. Because carbon dioxide has a very long lifetime (hundreds to thousands of years), it is cumulative emissions that matter and the U.S. is the biggest contributor (although China, with a population 4x bigger than the U.S., has been a bigger annual contributor for the last two decades).
Carbon dioxide concentrations (of 425 ppm annualized in 2025) measured at Mauna Loa (Hawaii) have increased by over 50% relative to pre-industrial values (of 280 ppm).
These aspects have been well documented and understood for many years, and, with some hiccups, led to the Paris Agreement in 2015, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted by 195 parties to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
Not only have temperatures already risen by 1.5°C, mainly since the 1970s, increases in heat waves have also occurred and caused substantial damages. Many other extremes have also increased and are related to global warming, but in much less obvious ways. As temperatures rise, it seems fairly reasonable that there will be more high temperatures. But it is more than the overall rise in temperatures that is in play. Changes also relate to location, especially land versus ocean, and weather and weather patterns.
[...] In the absence of progress toward sufficient decarbonization to rein in human activities that cause climate change, which is very much a global problem, the only option for small countries and individuals is to plan for the consequences. This is so-called adaptation and building resilience. It requires paying special attention to rising sea levels and coastal inundation, drainage systems to deal with torrential rains and flooding, managing water to deal with droughts and wildfire risk, and protection from heat waves. Increasing extremes in weather are already occurring and prospects are for more of the same... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: A new analysis issued by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) found that the evidence linking rising greenhouse gas emissions to negative human health outcomes is “beyond scientific dispute.” Climate change is real and it has already resulted in major damage.
The main cause is increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all from human activities. Because carbon dioxide has a very long lifetime (hundreds to thousands of years), it is cumulative emissions that matter and the U.S. is the biggest contributor (although China, with a population 4x bigger than the U.S., has been a bigger annual contributor for the last two decades).
Carbon dioxide concentrations (of 425 ppm annualized in 2025) measured at Mauna Loa (Hawaii) have increased by over 50% relative to pre-industrial values (of 280 ppm).
These aspects have been well documented and understood for many years, and, with some hiccups, led to the Paris Agreement in 2015, a legally binding international treaty on climate change, adopted by 195 parties to limit global warming to well below 2°C, preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels.
Not only have temperatures already risen by 1.5°C, mainly since the 1970s, increases in heat waves have also occurred and caused substantial damages. Many other extremes have also increased and are related to global warming, but in much less obvious ways. As temperatures rise, it seems fairly reasonable that there will be more high temperatures. But it is more than the overall rise in temperatures that is in play. Changes also relate to location, especially land versus ocean, and weather and weather patterns.
[...] In the absence of progress toward sufficient decarbonization to rein in human activities that cause climate change, which is very much a global problem, the only option for small countries and individuals is to plan for the consequences. This is so-called adaptation and building resilience. It requires paying special attention to rising sea levels and coastal inundation, drainage systems to deal with torrential rains and flooding, managing water to deal with droughts and wildfire risk, and protection from heat waves. Increasing extremes in weather are already occurring and prospects are for more of the same... (MORE - details)