Don't overstate 1.5 degrees C threat, new IPCC head says – DW – 07/30/2023
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Jim Skea, the new head of the UN's IPCC climate panel, said it was not helpful to imply that temperature increases of 1.5 degrees Celsius posed an existential threat to humanity.

In short, we aren’t on track to an apocalyptic extinction, and the new head is concerned that rhetoric that we are is making people apathetic and paralyzes them from making beneficial actions.

He makes it clear too that this doesn’t mean things are perfectly fine. The world is becoming and will be more dangerous with respect to climate. We’re going to still have serious problems to deal with. The problems just aren’t insurmountable and extinction level.

  • Holodeck_MoriartyEnglish
    41·
    1 year ago

    He’s not wrong. Groupthink elevates the most extreme rhetoric, and when people hear that, they disregard the totally valid argument as a whole.

    If one person is saying “Hey, this could be bad for our coral reefs, polar bear populations, may cause more hurricanes over time, etc.” they’re going to be completely drowned out by the person saying “THIS IS THE END OF MODERN SOCIETY!” (paraphrased from an upvoted comment under this post)

    • markr@lemmy.worldEnglish
      63·
      1 year ago

      No he is wrong and he is just mouthing the ipcc party line talking points. They’ve been doing this bs for a long time, demanding that climate scientists tone it down. And the reasoning is appallingly manipulative: if people understand how fucking bad it is going to get they will be paralyzed and ‘people’ won’t act. Meanwhile ‘people’ not acting is pretty much irrelevant when the global economic system itself is the direct cause of the problem, ‘people’ are just consuming commodities with abandon, as they have been trained, and as they must to keep the global economic system functioning.

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I mean there was a direct scientific report that the UN released earlier this year which did say we aren’t on the path to extinction – but also that modest increases to temperature are more significant than we originally thought.

        I think there’s reason to believe we’re not in the absolute worst case scenario, and regardless of however else the IPCC has been bearish, it’s a good point that we should keep rhetoric in check. You can already see several people giving up and saying there’s no point. Let scientists say for themselves what the data concludes, and leave it there.