365 Days of Climate Awareness 328: IPCC AR6, Volume 2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

We’re nearing the end of this 365 Days series, with a little more than a month—thirty-seven days’—of posts left. (And of course I realize the series could go on indefinitely, as the work to mitigate and adapt to climate change is only beginning.) But it will be time for me to redirect my time elsewhere, though I’ll continue writing. Just not in a daily, compact format like this.

Climate change studies by region. Does the west win a prize?

But the time has come to take all of the basics, and not-so-basics, of climate science, and the general global knowledge we’ve gathered throughout these 327 posts, and bring them to fruition by going in some detail through the current AR6 report. Volume 1, the Physical Science Basis, has much in common with the several hundred posts I’ve made already. So here I’ll move on to Volume 2, and address the impacts of global warming on some of the natural systems around the world.

Different baselines for global temperature anomalies. In science, measurements are a function of the reference point.

This is only an introduction, and if you have sincere interest—as I hope you do—there is a link to the report at the bottom. It’s not easy reading, I won’t sugarcoat that, and the report, like Volume I last year, is only in draft form, so I’m really not supposed to be linking to it or reproducing any graphs. But as before, I think climate change is too important to keep worthwhile information back. Like with my hopscotch tour of the planet, I will survey the chapters of Volumes 2 and, later, 3 (Adaptation and Mitigation), to give you a fair sampling of what this massive collaborative effort has to offer.

Global impacts of various changes in climate through the eons. (Note that the planet has been in icehouse conditions since the Paleogene, and the current spike in temperature is still well below earlier geological ages--when the planet lookd far different.)

Knowledge is not enough. This is not an academic exercise. It’s good to learn more about our natural systems, so we can better understand how to coexist within them and how they are changing. But the goal isn’t to talk about climate change, it’s to act on it, so our society doesn’t fail. Career climate researchers never leave, or never stray far, from the cycle of testing, discovery and analysis. Because of them we’ve learned what we know now. But the urgency of global warming will not be met in the laboratory. It will be met worldwide, everywhere—or not.

Temperature changes during this interglacial period, and recent human impacts.

Tomorrow: AR6 V2 Ch2: Terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.

Be brave, be steadfast, and be well.

IPCC 6th Assessment Report, Volume 2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability