Climate change is not top of mind nor leading this week’s news. It is what will matter long after the stench of current sleaze has lifted, or next-cycle corporate and political shenanigans are forgotten.
Recent items of note:
The auditor general of Canada’s westernmost province – which backslid after being first in North America to introduce a carbon tax – reported today on climate change, calling it “one of the greatest challenges the world is facing.” It said British Columbia “has a lot of work underway to adapt, but it hasn’t comprehensively assessed the risks the province faces, and doesn’t have a plan to move forward. B.C. will likely not meet its 2020 emissions reduction target.” Its summary cites the dangers of flood, wildfire and drought. But it’s myopoic in neglecting or downplaying the global risks – food security, migration of refugees, and violence – that will reach every shore.
This week the draft of a major United Nations report was leaked, and reported by Climate Home News. The draft predicted a ‘very high risk’ the planet will warm beyond key limits. “There is … no documented precedent for the geographical and economic scale of the energy, land, urban and industrial transitions implicit in pathways consistent with a 1.5 C warmer world,” said a Washington Post report. The finished report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is due in September, and currently under expert review.
