(Economic Observation) Interview with Chao Qingchen, deputy director of the National Climate Center: Can humans control climate change if the earth continues to warm up?
China News Agency, Beijing, August 17 (Reporter Chen Su) The data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently showed that the global average temperature in July 2021 broke a record, becoming the hottest July since the meteorological record in 1880. .
Earlier this month, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report that also showed that global warming is intensifying and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent.
In the face of the rapidly changing global climate, can human beings still have the ability to control it?
Recently, a reporter from China News Agency conducted an exclusive interview with Chao Qingchen, deputy director of the National Climate Center, on the content of the report and the global climate change situation.
Chao Qingchen said that the report of the First Working Group of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2021: Natural Science Basis" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") was released on August 9.
The "Report" shows that the 50 years since 1970 is the warmest 50 years since 2000. The current carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is higher than any time since 2 million years. The global surface temperature from 2001 to 2020 is higher than that during the Industrial Revolution. (1850-1900) rose by 0.99°C, and the global average sea level since 1900 has risen faster than any century in the past 3000 years.
Human activities have significantly affected the distribution of precipitation, ocean acidification, glacier retreat, Arctic sea ice melting, reduced snow cover in the northern hemisphere, and sea level rise, and led to the frequent occurrence of extreme events such as heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts, and tropical cyclones since the 1970s. Strongly, the warming characteristics caused by human activities are reflected in the entire climate system, which has never been seen in the past few centuries or even thousands of years.
The "Report" pointed out that compared with the industrial revolution, the global temperature rise will likely reach or exceed 1.5°C in the next 20 years, climate change in all regions will intensify, and the probability of concurrent extreme events and compound events in many regions of the world will increase. Increase.
At the same time, extreme events will occur more frequently. High-temperature heat waves and droughts will occur concurrently. Extreme sea-level events characterized by storm surges, huge ocean waves, and tidal floods will intensify compound flood events caused by the superposition of heavy rainfall.
Talking about the impact of global warming on China, Chao Qingchen said that climate change is affecting the distribution of rainfall. In high latitudes, precipitation may increase, while in most subtropics, it may decrease. Sea levels in coastal areas will continue to rise, leading to More frequent and severe coastal flooding occurs in low-lying areas.
Further warming will intensify the melting of permafrost, the loss of seasonal snow, the melting of glaciers and ice caps, and the melting of Arctic sea ice in summer.
These problems occur in China. For example, from the northeast to the south in eastern China, there is a high risk area for extreme rainfall.
In recent years, extreme weather events have occurred frequently across the world. Especially since this year, Western Europe and China have successively experienced heavy rains and floods, causing many deaths. North America has also been hit by continuous high temperature and heat waves.
Extreme weather events seem to be hitting with higher frequency and greater intensity, and the impact of climate change on humans is becoming more and more significant.
Is global warming out of control?
Does humanity have time to reverse this situation?
Chao Qingchen said that overall, the probability of occurrence of various extreme events around the world is increasing. Every increase in global warming will increase the frequency and intensity of the expected changes in extreme events, which also means emissions from human activities. The more, the more serious the extreme event will be.
"According to the results of future projections, it is not yet irreversible. As long as the world is actively responding to it, climate change is still within the controllable range."
The current global response to climate change has reached a very urgent moment.
The "Report" pointed out that human actions may determine the future climate trend.
"Because of the lag in the response of the climate system, even if humans stop all emissions today, the negative impact of climate change in some climate systems, especially those related to the ocean, will continue for hundreds or even thousands of years." Chao Qing Chen said that from a series of data, we can see that reality is indeed urgent, and global cooperation efforts are the best answer to urgency.
She said that the current response to climate change is still facing difficulties and challenges such as the conflict between development and emission reduction, the transformational technology for controlling greenhouse gas emissions has not yet been broken, and international cooperation on climate change cannot effectively play a role.
In the face of the crisis brought about by climate change, the international community must do their best and work together to shoulder the important task of mitigating climate change.
It is necessary to truly realize that addressing climate change is necessary for the survival and development of all countries and mankind, and establish an international cooperation model featuring mutual respect, mutual assistance and common development. The response to climate change must not be used as a tool to blame each other and restrict the development of other countries, while strengthening the global Technical cooperation is an effective strategy to solve the problem of climate change.
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