What If We Do Nothing?
Without additional action, Earth is on track to heat up by about 4°C by the end of the century, compared to pre industrial levels. Scientific evidence tells us this would be a recipe for disaster.
By 2100, the world's oceans would rise 26-82 cm over levels seen between 1986-2005, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found. More recent studies suggest the increase could be significantly higher. Driving the rise are ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica shedding mass faster than ever, melting glaciers, and oceans that expand as they warm. Even a 2°C rise as targeted by the UN would submerge land currently occupied by 280 million people, as per a US-based research group.
Superstorms, bone-chilling cold snaps and intense heat waves could become more common and more extreme due to global warming. Recent research has teased out climate change as an aggravating factor for deadly floods, snowstorms etc.
Global warming can lead to long running droughts and devastating floods, which means some parts of the world will not have enough water and others too much. Continuous droughts in Syria and California have been linked to climate change.
Global warming can spur disease, ravage crops and push more people into poverty. Conflict over water or smaller harvests could instigate war or mass migration. People living on low lying islands could become climate refugees.
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