What is causing the climate emergency and what are the impacts?
 

Human activity since the industrial revolution has led to increased greenhouse gases (GHGs) which have caused a rapid increase in temperatures that now threatens life on earth.  GHGs have increased from natural long-term peaks of 285 ppm (parts per million) to more than 450 ppm since the start of the industrial revolution.

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Global warming is changing the earth’s climate and the impact it has on the earth’s surface, both on land and sea, such as melting of the ice caps and thawing of frozen tundra. Whilst the climate represents atmospheric conditions measured over a long period of time (at least 30-year averages), the weather is our experience of atmospheric conditions at a given point in time. The growth of extreme weather conditions (both in terms of frequency and intensity) is also an indicator of climate change taking place.

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We’ve also doubled our use of resources and now consume over twice the sustainable resource use limit for life on the planet.  The destruction of the natural environment has wiped out more than half of life on Earth since 1970. We’ve lost soils, forests and wetlands that kept CO2 in check, further accelerating global heating. Compared to less developed nations, the footprint of the western world is huge – and the roots of the problem lie here in Shropshire, birthplace of the industrial revolution. 

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How can we respond?

 

Responding to climate change includes two linked processes:
 

• Mitigation: reducing GHG emissions (achieving “net zero”) is needed to stop the earth’s atmosphere warming to an extent that irreversible damage may be done to human society and the natural world, ideally (but increasingly unlikely) to less than 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial atmospheric temperatures, and

 

• Adaptation: taking measures to address the effects of climate change on human society and Nature is required because climate change is already having an impact, whether via drought, localised flooding, heatwaves or through pests and diseases, affecting our housing and transport infrastructure, food production and the natural environment, and also human health and well-being.

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Find out what the climate crisis means for Shropshire: