🌡️ New IPCC chairman: Talk of doomsday doesn't help in climate efforts

🌡️ New IPCC chairman: Talk of doomsday doesn't help in climate efforts

"If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyzes people", says the new chairman of the UN:s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Mathias Sundin
Mathias Sundin

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The UN's climate panel (IPCC) has elected a new chairman, Jim Skea. He is a professor of sustainable energy at Imperial College in London and has been active in the IPCC since the 1990s.

In a couple of interviews after the election as chairman, he says that panic and talk of doomsday don't help in the climate efforts.

"If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyzes people and prevents them from taking the necessary steps to get a grip on climate change," he says.

The world will be more dangerous, but won't come to an end if we reach a warming of more than 1.5 degrees, he believes.

"We should not despair and fall into a state of shock" if global temperatures increase that much.

Instead, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic in the fight against climate change, according to Jim Skea.

"Every action we take to mitigate climate change helps," he said, adding that the measures are becoming "increasingly cost-effective."

A serious problem that we will solve

Here at Warp News, we agree. Climate change is a serious problem that we will solve. However, exaggerated doomsday talk harms that work.

To balance the view, we highlight people working on the solutions and the progress being made.

This paints a picture that is still serious, but certainly not pitch-black.

We can't sit back; a lot of work remains, but we can be increasingly optimistic that we will fix it.

🏭 Global climate emissions no longer on worst-case trajectory
Global CO2 emissions no longer align with the direst predictions and are now veering towards a moderate trajectory.The rapidly accelerating energy transition drives the shift, courtesy of falling clean energy technology costs.
Warp NewsWALL-Y
🌊 A tsunami of climate solutions is on its way
At times it feels like very little progress is made to reduce climate change. Things have to be done faster. However, we will probably be surprised in 2035 how incredibly far we have come in reducing emissions. This is because a tsunami of climate solutions is on its way.
Warp NewsMathias Sundin
Climate ChangeEnvironment

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