[MCN] Yet another dark warning on emissions and heat

[Lance Olsen]

The Wall Street Journal November 27, 2018
Nations’ Pledges to Cut Greenhouse-Gas Emissions Fall Short, U.N. Says
Current commitments put the world on a path to catastrophic climate change, new assessment concludes
By Timothy Puko

1st 2 paragraphs
WASHINGTON—Promises from nations around the world to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions fall far short of what is necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to a new United Nations report that urges more-ambitious commitments to curb global warming.

The U.N. assessment, a progress report on climate-change mitigation, suggests current commitments put global temperatures on pace to rise 3 degrees Celsius by 2100. That is nearly double what many scientists say is the most the world can handle without destruction of...

Full story behind paywall

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CNN November 27, 2018
World is woefully short of 2 degree goal for climate change, according to UN report
By Brandon Miller <https://www.cnn.com/profiles/brandon-miller>, CNN Meteorologist

Updated 12:45 PM ET, Tue 
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/world/climate-change-un-emission-report-2018-wxc/index.html <https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/world/climate-change-un-emission-report-2018-wxc/index.html>

Excerpts
A 3.2 degree warmer world by the end of this century would bring about many of the dire consequences  <https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/health/climate-change-impact-by-region/index.html>for human health, global economies and sea level rise that are projected from the "higher-emission" scenarios (also known as worst-case scenarios).

The 2018 Emissions Gap Report <https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2018> is the flagship annual report from the UN Environment Program and acts as a report card on how countries are doing on their individual contributions to the Paris Climate Agreement.

This year's report shows the largest gap ever, resulting from increasing emissions and slow action to mitigate.

According to Tuesday's report, global emissions of CO2 in 2017 were 53.5 gigatons (a gigaton is 1 billion tons), the most ever released into the atmosphere.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/world/climate-change-un-emission-report-2018-wxc/index.html <https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/27/world/climate-change-un-emission-report-2018-wxc/index.html>

********************* Climate & living standards. **********************

“Social status and identity became closely associated with consumption, in particular with the concept of luxury. 

"Identifying oneself with the good life meant being able to live beyond traditional understandings of basic needs.”

Kenneth Dyson. The Morality of Debt. Foreign Affairs. May 3, 2015
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-05-03/morality-debt <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-05-03/morality-debt>

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“The American way of life is not negotiable.”

George H. W. Bush. 1992

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"We are not able even to think adequately about the behavior that is at the annihilating edge."

R. D. Laing. Introduction, The Politics of Experience. 
1967, New York. Pantheon Books, a division of Random House

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