A long-awaited report from the united
nations is characterizing the climate
crisis
as a quote "code red for humanity"
a sobering assessment that concludes
it's too late to prevent global warming
from
worsening in the coming decades but
leaves open the chance to turn the
situation around
if major players including new jersey do
their part
Leah Mishkin reports as part of our
ongoing series on the human stories of
climate change
peril and promise more heat waves
greater sea level rise heavier rain
storms
more intense hurricanes how much
more of these things we get
depends on how much warming there is and
the globe has warmed by more than one
degree celsius since the last half of
the 19th century according to the united
nations new intergovernmental panel on
climate change report
put together by more than 200 authors
from 66 countries
the ipcc report shows we're not far from
the 1.5 degree celsius threshold
set by world leaders it's quite possible
that we will reach that 1.5 degree level
sometime in the next 20 to 30 years
we're saying wildfires currently burning
in the west as they seem to do
with worse intensity every year now new
jersey has already experienced a
higher degree of temperature warming
than it has been as
our neighbors frankly because of
more urban communities in this state the
co-founder of evergreen action a climate
advocacy organization
says the biggest effect in new jersey
will be sea level rise
something echoed by the co-director of
rutgers climate institute
dr anthony broccoli depending on how
much
additional greenhouse gases we put into
the atmosphere
sea level could rise by anywhere from
from two to four feet
by the end of this century so that's
clearly going to have a large impact
in terms of of coastal flooding we're
going to see
increases in temperature that result in
more frequent
and more intense heat waves also
more intense rains dr anthony brockley
says the largest contributor to global
warming is carbon dioxide
followed by methane how much the world
has warmed over the last half century
is unprecedented in records going back
thousands of years and what we really
have to do is essentially reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero
there is a real opportunity to act now
three different things are being
contemplated currently
as part of president biden's agenda and
in congress
number one a clean electricity standard
much like that that has been passed by
new jersey lawmakers to drive towards a
hundred percent
carbon pollution free electricity in the
power sector by 2035
number two massive investments in clean
energy
in electric vehicles and other
innovative technologies
and number three environmental justice
the un secretary general calling this
report
a quote code red for humanity there
certainly have been
natural changes in climate that have
happened in the past
there were ice ages 20,000
years ago the northern part of new
jersey was covered by
an ice sheet but the causes of the ice
ages
are known they were caused by small
slow changes in the earth's orbit
that play out over tens of thousands of
years
they can't change the climate in 50
years
the way we've seen the changes in
climate that we're seeing now
are overwhelmingly the result of human
activities
the u.n secretary general warning quote
global heating is affecting every region
on earth
with many changes becoming irreversible
for nj spotlight news i'm leah mishkin
lead funding for paralympics is provided
by
Dr. P. Roy Vagelos and Diana T. Vagelos
major support is provided by the Marc
Haas foundation
and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III and the
cheryl and philip milstein family
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