China’s new goal posts virtually guarantee world will also miss never-exceed goal of well below two degrees

Going through two degrees higher average global temperature means that some tropical and sub-tropical areas will become lethally hot outdoors in the summertime for weeks at a time. Famines will spread, refugees will start to move by the millions, borders will slam shut, and wars become likely.

There is a risk, real but hard to quantify, that enough tipping points will be triggered to send the global climate off on a self-sustaining and irreversible transformation to a much hotter 'new normal,' writes Gwynne Dyer. Photograph courtesy of Pixy.org

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

September 24, 2020

LONDON, U.K.—China took a major stride forward on climate on Sept. 22. Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, for the first time committed China to a hard target for future greenhouse gas emissions. By 2060, he promised, his country wil...

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