The grim news embedded in the latest report from the United Nations International Governmental Panel on Climate Change points to the increasing likelihood of extreme weather events, food shortages, and civic disorder in the absence of aggressive restraints on greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. But the warnings were also couched in language that promoted the opportunities to mitigate those very risks by various means including improved commercial and industrial energy efficiency.
The Co-Chairman of the group of 309 scientists from 70 different countries who collaborated on the report said, “Understanding that climate change is a challenge in managing risk opens a wide range of opportunities for integrating adaptation with economic and social development and with initiatives to limit future warming. We definitely face challenges, but understanding those challenges and tackling them creatively can make climate-change adaptation an important way to help build a more vibrant world in the near-term and beyond.”
Read a summary of the IPCC 2014 Report on the NPR News site...