By Wayne Winegarden, Senior Fellow, Business and Economics, Pacific Research Institute, and Charles Ray, Former U.S. Ambassador; Chair of the Africa Program, Foreign Policy Research Institute
Climate change is an existential threat with the potential to have catastrophic effects on the habitability of the planet. Continued inaction in addressing the factors driving climate change, such as greenhouse gas emissions, risks triggering tipping points that will irreversibly changes in the planet’s climate. Some tipping points, such as sea-level rise, will become permanent even if all emissions are ended. Researchers are already seeing disturbing changes, such as the rate at which Greenland’s ice sheet is melting and the amount of carbon emitted from the Amazon’s deforestation is occurring well before the predicted 1.5 degree Celsius increase in average global temperature is reached.
