Short Wave - Silver Linings From The UN's Dire Climate Change Report

Episode Date: March 3, 2022

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just released the second of three reports on climate change. Nearly 300 scientists from all over the world worked together to create this account of how global warming is affecting our society. NPR climate reporter Rebecca Hersher fills us in on this major climate science report and actually brings three empowering takeaways hidden within it. Read the report here: https://bit.ly/3hzWNFvAnd listen to Rebecca Hersher's hopeful takeaways from the first report: https://n.pr/3pwZRGXWhat empowers you when thinking about climate change? Email the show at [e-mail]! See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Oh, Aaron, I like to sing the little audio idea at the top, so I'll be doing that for you. I guess I start unless do we... Bo-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, shortwavers. I'm Aaron Scott. So, we know many great things come in trilogies, Lord of the Rings, the Godfather, Back to the Future. Austin Power's Star Wars, The Matrix.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Those last two are controversial, Aaron. Sorry, sorry. I get a little carried away, but that's because I'm excited. Today we are talking about an epic trilogy that is still unfolding. The reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or the IPCC. Am I overselling that, Becky? No.

So you are the person to talk to about all things climate change. Yes, yes. And I am Rebecca Hersher. I'm a climate reporter here at NPR. Welcome to Shortwave. Thank you. And yes, we are talking about the second of three big climate reports from the IPCC. This report came out this week.

And it was a long time in the making. Yeah, it's been in the works for years. And obviously the last few years have not been the easiest for big, collaborative projects that usually happen in person. Right. There are like nearly 300 authors on this report, and they are spread all over the world. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I actually talked to one of them back in 2020.

Dr. Lisa Shipper is a scientist at Oxford University. She volunteers to write these reports. And she said it was a nightmare to coordinate the meetings over so many time zones. If you're going to be in Mexico City or in New Zealand and the meetings are kind of centered around the Central European time zone, then that means for you either getting up really, really early, essentially in the night, or staying up super late. And how effective can you be then? So when I talk to her, you can tell she's a little bit frustrated. The deadline for the final draft of this report was looming.

Government officials from all over the world were waiting for this report because it's the definitive account of how global warming is impacting human society. Alas, they blew past the original deadline in 2021. But this week, they finally finished the report. Scientists for the win. Yes. And after they wrapped it up close to midnight on Saturday, Dr. Shipper's, tweeted, I am very tired. Yeah, I bet. So just to review, the first report directly linked

climate change to the worsening wildfires and droughts and hurricanes that have battered us in recent years. This new report is number two, and it focuses on how all of that is affecting humans and ecosystems. So what does it say exactly? Honestly, it's a dozy. In short, it says that billions of people are already suffering from the effects of climate change, that governments need to do more to protect people, especially the most vulnerable people, and that humans need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere quickly and really dramatically to avoid runaway sea level rise, extreme heat, disease outbreaks, and other catastrophic problems. Fantastic. It's like being stuck in a loop of disaster deja vu. Yeah, it's bad. But here's the thing.

fear not, Aaron, because I know we just bet, so you may not know this about me, but I can find a silver lining in just about anything. And there are a few really important things hiding in this report that I think people will actually find pretty empowering. Okay, okay, this I do want to hear, because, I mean, climate change can leave us feeling so helpless. Yes. So today on the show, our Herald of Climate Empowerment, Rebecca Hersher, fills us in on a major U.S. climate science report and three empowering takeaways hidden within it. I'm Aaron Scott and you are listening to Shortwave, the Daily Science Podcast from MPR. Okay, okay, Becky.

So you said this report warns that humans have to drastically cut down how much CO2 is in the atmosphere, which I don't know about you, but I personally do not find very empowering. I mean, I can't do that on my own and most governments haven't exactly come close to making the changes needed. So help me out here. Yeah, and you have an excellent point. The most obvious way to cut down on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are trapping heat in the atmosphere is to stop emitting them. And a big part of that is to stop burning huge quantities of oil and gas and coal. But this report also focuses on another thing that humans can do, something that may be a little bit more empowering. We can help nature, help us. What does that mean? So it means keeping

natural ecosystems intact, you know, protecting them. And in the case of places we've damaged, helping them recover. Here's how Dr. Camille Parmesan, one of the report authors, put it. Keeping climate change down to the lower levels is going to rely on getting natural systems in better shape to suck up carbon because emissions reductions alone are not going to do it. Yeah, I see that playing out here in the Northwest. We have some of the densest forests in the world. And where people used to care mostly about just, you know, preserving the old growth forests, now they want to preserve all these forests. And that's to protect the entire planet because dense forests like this suck up and store huge amounts of carbon. Yeah. And that's also

relevant to tropical rainforests, same with grasslands, wetlands, tundra, the ocean. If we protect these areas, they can help us control the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and control global temperatures, which I think is empowering. Like, if humans work with nature, nature will work with humans. Oh, kind of like a good buddy film. Okay. So that's takeaway number one. What's takeaway number two? So this one is about health. And this report says billions of people are suffering already from climate change. That is devastating. Yes. And we're talking about people who are suffering because of wildfires, hurricanes, disease outbreaks, heat waves. I mean, my city, Portland, Oregon is currently getting walloped by an atmospheric river.

These are all things that are made worse by climate change, right? Yes. And I want to focus on just one of these effects, heat waves, because the authors of this report spend a lot of time on heat. And there's a lot of research about how climate change is causing more severe heat waves and how that's killing people and making them sick. Heat is the number one weather-related killer here in the U.S. But here is the other thing that the report says.

Heat deaths are entirely preventable. So like even though heat waves are dangerous and getting worse, they need not kill people? Yeah, exactly, which is empowering, no? That depends, Becky. Does the report get into how we can prevent heat deaths? Yeah. So the solutions are kind of basic. So make sure people have access to cool spaces.

And that's especially important for people who are the most. vulnerable to heat exposure. So elderly people, sick people, children, people who work outside. Now, actually doing that isn't always so simple. The devil's in the details. So for example, people who work outside would need to be able to take time off work when it's too hot to do their job safely, and they would need a cool place to be. But even if the how isn't always clear, at least we know what needs to happen to prevent people from dying in heat waves. Okay, so that's number two. Heat deaths are preventable with a little bit of work. What's number three?

So number three is really simple. If humans cut greenhouse gas emissions really quickly, it will save billions of people from illness, poverty, and death. Billions of people. Okay, so you are indeed the queen of silver linings. And while I hate to be the king of curmudgins, what does really quickly mean in this case? So basically emissions would need to be cut in half in the next decade, and humans need to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by 20. If humanity can do that, then we'll avoid some of the scariest effects of climate change. Things like runaway sea level rise, mass extinction of plants and animals.

You mention a decade, but to be honest, that sounds a little optimistic. So if we don't hit that decade, is there at some point when we run out of time to do this? You know, it's not so much that we run out of time as it is that every moment counts. So the sooner we reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect ecosystems, the more likely. will be protected. Okay. Becky, I can't say I'm super sunny at the end of this conversation. There is an atmospheric river pouring down on me after all, but I do not feel complete despair. I get it. I get it. It was worth a try. So a quick plug, the UN scientists are still working. So as we said, this was the second of three big climate science reports. The third one is about

solutions to climate change. And it's coming out in about six weeks. So stay tuned. Thank you, Rebecca Hersher, for bringing us to the Silver Lightning's Climate Book, shall we do it again in six weeks? No, because I'm going on parental leave, so I'll be hanging out with my baby. But our colleague, Lauren Summer, will bring you all the hits from the next report. Fantastic. I cannot wait. Today's episode was produced by Eva Tesfai, edited by Giselle Grayson, who's also our supervising editor, and fact-checked by Catherine Seifer. Patrick Murray was the audio engineer.

Andrea Kisick runs the science desk. Edith Chapin is the executive editor and vice president of news, and Nancy Barnes is our senior vice president of news. This is Shortwave, the Daily Science podcast from NPR.