Scientists warn of imminent climate catastrophe without massive changes

It's being described by the scientists who wrote it as a "clarion bell" - a report warning the world that unprecedented and immediate change is needed to prevent a climate catastrophe.

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A report by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change for the United Nations says we need to act without delay to prevent the destruction of coral reefs and stop sea levels rising by as much as ten centimetres. If that happened large parts of the world could become uninhabitable.

[monalisa]

We’re not going to save the earth

To many people won’t listen

[louisedwards]

Who's here because of Lil Dicky?!

[PCnewby]

Anyone here from Lil Dicky's new music video?

[DylanFowler]

Global warming or not our forests are disappearing. If every individual cuts down their meat intake by at least a half our health and our planet will be better off.

[Jackson-rfrv]

I cut out meat from my diet last year, and started growing vegetables and fruit in my garden, planted 7 trees, bought a little trolley so I can walk to the shops instead of drive, and put buckets in my shower and with the water caught I water my garden with.
The fight against climate change starts at home

[nik]

Nothing will change
Lot of people dont listen

[ketran]

I'm a vegetarian but let me tell you it is not gonna stop climate change. Plant based agriculture has a host of negative effects on the ecosystem including:

Soil erosion
Water salination
Deforestation

The problem here is of a population one, not a diet one. Agriculture is an intensive non-renewable form of farming which has left vast swathes of previously fertile land as deserts. Farmers practice monoculture in order to grow a lot of one particular food quickly and efficiently. This has high yields, and feeds a great deal of people, but it comes at a cost. After the final harvest of the year, fields are put to bed and left naked and bare to endure the winter, where winds erode the soil which ends up eventually washed into the sea. Then when Spring returns the soil is fertilised, monocultured at the expense of soil fertility (as soil needs a variety of plant matter to decay in order to absorb nutrients properly), and coated in pesticides that kill insects and make their predators starve.

Every year the amount of fertile soil becomes less and less, why? Irrigation. Irrigation is a vital part of agriculture in order to allow farmland in previously arid and uninhabitable areas. Like monoculture, it helps us grow large yields and feed a lot of people. What's the problem? Irrigation is responsible for drawing salts into the soil, and as we know, salt can blight land for hundreds of years and prevent any plant life from growing. When that salt sinks low enough into the soil as a result of fertiliser being constantly piled atop it, it leaks into the underground water table, a reservoir for plant growth, which now salinated can no longer sustain life on the surface.

The solution is permaculture, small scale edible forests that follow seasonal growth, a return to small-scale animal pastures that don't exceed the capabilities of the land. But sadly, the population is just too big, and not knowledgeable enough to ever put it into practice.

[manindersingh]

I don't mind if all humans dies but i just want earth to live

[jimwilliams]

Dear, good Channel 4 people,
If you want shine a light on to this issue, perhaps you should really begin with the supermarkets and the waste they create. They buy up massive amounts of food and then throw it away after pricing it too high to sell. They do this to increase scarcity, close out competitors and drive up prices, their actions are not in any way to help us, or minimise their impact on our environment. They throw enough food away to feed millions of people every day and claim the 'loss' back on their insurance. Millions and millions of animals die every year only to just rot in plastic, out the back of supermarkets in those massive locked bins.
Stop putting the blame on the public, our eating habits needs much less correction.

[audreyosborne]

i’ve been really stressed about this lately 😔

[iking]

According to an Inconvenient Truth, these disasters were supposed to have already happened.

[zenitths]

Man I’m still young to die :/ I’m about to be a teenager.

[allycatt]

If everyone stopped driving the world would be a lot healthier not 100% but at least 80% but sadly that won’t happen

[octaviog]

Isnt it Ironic how our greatest achievements and our ignorance will be human kinds downfall?

[celestialteapot]

The action needed to be taken in the 80's, it's now too late.

[bbbrbrbpdpdppdpsksk]

BUT WHY! WHY DO PEOPLE LIGHT FIRES AND THROW TRASH AND DUMP IT INTO THE SEA JUST WHY

[biolgical]

I am the only here because of lil dicky. He got me concerned 😟

[yhyhyhc]

12 years?





Nope, 17 months now

[Tonyisnotonfire]

Our economic and political system isn’t equipped to deal with this.
We need radical change now

[artenman]

12 years to save ourselves. The world will still be here, it isn’t going anywhere