The Cryosphere Pavilion was one of the most interesting pavilions I came across at this COP, simply taking in the presentations of a group of superb scientists who are telling us very clearly that we cannot fail on getting emissions down and sticking firmly to the Paris Agreement, despite it being against the odds.
Connecting COP26 to the climate system
At the COP the politics is about fanfare and rhetoric but on the science pavilions in the next room to that fanfare we find sobriety and caution. We also find a deep concern for the direction that the Earth system is taking in terms of a case change from the interglacial epoch to the hot epoch.
The big problem we have is that we are not addressing these issues with physics as one of the main realities that must be central to how we plan for the change.
The Alps is very likely to be lost. Overshoot in emissions mitigation means we pollute too much and respond too slowly. The consequences are the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. This melting will redefine our world and destroy much of the human civilisation we have developed over the last few thousand years.
It is worth watching the full presentations from the Cryosphere Pavilion – they can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXpj…
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