“All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.” U.S. President Joe Biden quoted famed Irish poet WB Yeats while addressing the severity of climate change. The expression, “all changed, changed utterly: a terrible beauty,” refers to the disaster that could befall humanity due to the climate crisis. Recently, a major wildfire was unleashed in California, a short while after a hurricane had also hit the Eastern U.S., causing massive damage. These events show that the ‘all changed’ climate crisis is happening right now and not in the future.
Climate change is not only a problem in the U.S. An abnormal climate is a problem that no one in the world can escape. As the frequency of natural disasters continue to increase, resulting damage also rises sharply. UNISDR (The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) estimated damage reaching USD 2.55 trillion was the result of climate-related disasters over a 20-year period (1998-2017). The estimated cost was more than twice the amount for the previous 20 years (1978-1997) and is expected to expand further. Considering accelerating climate change, the ‘terrible beauty’ will also grow. Therefore, it is time to act on climate change that causes great damage to society and the economy. Climate experts speak with one voice, “Speak now and act now for the future.”
Q CELLS prepared this special feature on climate change to take an in-depth look at the climate crisis happening around the world. The first feature article covers how serious today’s climate crisis is, and how the damage will affect humankind.
1.5°C is the temperature that needs to be kept in mind amid the climate crisis. The *IPCC defined the critical point for global warming to be 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in its special report in 2018. Experts warn that if the temperature of the earth’s surface rises by 1.5°C, a point of no return will be reached. The IPCC special report also warned that at current warming rates, the planet would reach that critical point some time between 2030 and 2052. Moreover, the Sixth Assessment Report by the IPCC disclosed that the rising trend has been accelerated by about ten years. In other words, the timeframe for the 1.5°C threshold has been fast-forwarded to between 2021 and 2040 while the world was still in the phase of worrying about it. What is more serious is that the estimate is unavoidable even in the best-case scenario we can draw, which is to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050. Moreover, it is expected if climate change accelerates further, all glaciers at the North Pole will melt before 2050 at this rate. The signs have long been clear. In Greenland, North America, which is more than 80 percent covered with ice, 532 billion tons of glacier ice melted last year alone, an amount of water equivalent to filling seven Olympic-sized swimming pools every second. When glaciers melt, sea levels consequently will rise and we may witness coastal cities disappearing from the map. Will where you live now still be on the map in 2050?
< Global Average Temperature Rise, June 2021, Source: NOAA >
The problem is not just rising sea levels. As the global surface temperature increases, heatwaves will sweep the globe. Heatwaves are direct evidence that a climate disaster is happening in full swing. In Greece this year, a heatwave of 47°C caused a massive forest fire. The U.S. also reported more than 80 wildfires in 13 states in July alone. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), North American cities experienced the hottest June in U.S. history and the highest daytime and nighttime temperatures were recorded between the 24th and 30th of June 2021. The Antarctic, where no one expects anything related with heat, was no exception. Last year, the temperature of Seymour Island in the Antarctic rose to 20°C for the first time in history. Unprecedented events like this are happening all over the world. The problem is that abnormal temperature will recur again and again. There are warnings that heatwaves will continue to break records every year and heat the world. According to the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report, we are up to 40 times more likely to experience extreme weather compared to before industrialization. Extreme weather that has occurred previously once in 50 years will become common, like the typhoons we experience in Korea every summer. That is why the 1.5°C threshold is important in terms of climate change. In order to stop the rise in land surface temperature, concerted efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have to be made from now on.
The climate crisis is not a disaster we will face in the future. Although the future is indeed more worrisome, it threatens human life in many different ways even today. It has impacts on diseases with heatwave-caused heat strokes, and abnormal weather leads to a dramatic increase of insects, which increases the chances of virus transmission. Wildfires caused by heatwaves generate fine dust and pollute the air even more severely. Ozone pollution, which first comes to mind in terms of global warming, is still acute. Especially, air pollution leads to a vicious cycle, causing the climate crisis to worsen. Air pollution is the main threat to human health and is getting more serious. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), annual premature deaths due to air pollution in 2019 reached 4.5 million. This number was about 2.3 million in 1990, but it has nearly doubled since then. Disregarding the death rate, it is a serious risk factor because sulfurous acid gas and carbon monoxide in the atmosphere causes asthma, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases in children and youth. In fact, four out of ten children suffer fine dust-related diseases.
Are you familiar with the term ‘climate anxiety’? It sounds new but you may get used to it someday, because the climate crisis also threatens our mental health. Climate anxiety refers to the chronic fear of environmental damage and was first defined in a report by the American Psychological Association in 2017. About 67 percent of Americans fear climate change, and over half of them are concerned that their mental health may be adversely affected by the climate change. In particular, many people who have experienced the climate crisis directly – vulnerable groups, natives, scientists and researchers – frequently claim lypophrenia. Britt Wray, a science author, said that many people experienced psychological anxiety related to climate change and victims of extreme weather, like hurricanes, reported an increased tendency to PTSD or suicide.
The impact of climate change is critical to human society and the economy as a whole. It also has a great impact on food production, which is of course essential to our survival. The rise of sea level and land surface temperatures directly affect animals and plants living on earth. For example, for every 1°C increase in the average global temperature, crop yields decrease. A decrease in average crop yield of wheat (6%), rice (3.2%), corn (7.4%) and soy (3.1%) makes the food problem even more serious. If the 1.5°C threshold were exceeded, the existence of entire species could be affected. If the temperature increases 2-3°C, up to 54 percent of species on land and in the sea would be endangered. If that happens, the changes will not be limited to our dining table but to the whole world we live in.
