Climate Change The New Economy
We are nearing the last quarter of 2017 and this year (like the previous one) has set new records within the growing list of climate impacts globally. Recently our news feeds were packed with the unprecedented intensity of North America’s Atlantic hurricane season. Many Caribbean countries were severely impacted by hurricanes like Irma and they will likely have to face a couple of more hurricanes before the end of the year. Even the Economist was talking about how the Caribbean region must “adapt to climate change before it could rebuild[1]”.
On the other side of the planet, this summer the South Asian region, home to over 1.7 billion people, grappled with heavy flooding across several of its nations during the monsoon period. The unprecedented flooding led to a loss of hundreds of lives in its wake[2].
In April 2017, NSIDC published that the 2017 Arctic maximum was the lowest in the 38-year satellite record keeping history, for the third straight year[3]. Carbon dioxide concentrations have skyrocketed over the past two years. In April this year, the Mauna Loa Observatory recorded its first-ever carbon dioxide reading in excess of 410 parts per million[4]. bA level the planet has not witnessed in millions of years. These CO2 GHG concentrations are way beyond the ‘safe’ range.
[1] https://www.economist.com/news/americas/21729007-region-must-adapt-climate-change-not-simply-rebuild-how-hurricane-irma-will-change
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/30/mumbai-paralysed-by-floods-as-india-and-region-hit-by-worst-monsoon-rains-in-years
[3] https://nsidc.org/news/newsroom/arctic-sea-ice-maximum-record-low-third-straight-year
[4] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/we-just-breached-the-410-ppm-threshold-for-co2/
