According to a new report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has warned that the world has less than five years to get carbon emissions under control or the ongoing climate change will become inevitable.
Generally, the scientists do agree that the world can possibly keep temperature rises below a dangerous level of two degrees C (3.6 degrees F) if greenhouse gas emissions are halved by 2050. However, according to the new report from the WWF, this will require a "green industrial revolution" by 2014, together with heavy investment for transferring our dependence from fossil fuels to ‘low carbon alternatives’ like wind, solar, nuclear and clean coal.
This will also mean switching to electric cars and other green technologies and improving energy efficiency by insulating our homes and wasting less electricity.
Major Economies Forum
Ministers and officials from around the world met in London for the Major Economies Forum. The MEF was established by President Obama, in order to give the ministers an opportunity to discuss the difficult issues before the world meets in Copenhagen in December to agree a new deal on climate change.
Cut Back On Carbon Emissions and Reduce Deforestation
The Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Ed Miliband, will be pressurizing rich countries, including the US, to sign up to legally-binding targets to cut carbon emissions. The Prince of Wales will be hosting a dinner in which the ministers will be asked to sign up to innovative new measures to reduce deforestation, and make some plan to pay the poorer countries in order to reduce deforestation.
Both rich and poor countries should start investing in renewable energy and encourage some behavior change among citizens in order to meet the targets.
Some economic models have been used in the report to calculate how long it would take for a low carbon industry to grow to a point where it is big enough to cut emissions by 50 per cent. Keith Allott, the Head of Climate Change at WWF UK, said that any industry only has a chance to grow by 30 per cent every year so the world has to invest in a low carbon industry now to allow the sector to grow to a point where it takes over from fossil fuels by 2050.
“It’s nice to know that a lot of people have been pushing efforts to make planet earth a better place. With biofuels, and all other alternative resources for energy, we might be able to curb the growing problem that is global warming and at the same time preserve the ecosystems of the world. The Earth’s natural forces such as wind, hydro and solar power are limitless and effective ways to gain energy. So unless the winds stop blowing, the seas stop roaring or the sun dies out, there’ll always be a place to go for energy. Kudos mother earth!”
Now that I realized it, will 5 years really be enough to save ourselves from the Wrath of Nature? I do want to sound optimistic about it, bu I really doubt it.