Global Warming May Soon be Irreversible By Chloe Maher

The earth's temperature has advanced so much that it may be too far gone to reverse the effects of global emissions. Global emissions are showing small signs of slowing down. Humans have to avoid going past 1.5 degrees in the world's temperature in order to avoid catastrophic events for the earth. However, in order to avoid going past 1.5 degrees humans would have to make massive efforts to help the earth. “Frankly, we’ve delivered a message to the governments,” Jim Skea declared, a co-chair of the IPCC panel and professor at Imperial College London, at a press event following the document’s release. “It’s now their responsibility … to decide whether they can act on it. What we’ve done is said what the world needs to do.” Unfortunately, world governments don't seem to be taking this report into consideration. The United States is the world's second largest emitter of carbon dioxide a major perpetrator of global warming. However, the US recently dropped out of the Paris Agreement, and environmentally friendly policies put in place have been scaled back. This makes the world that much farther from achieving goals set up by the Paris Agreement.
In order to avoid warming the earth more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the world would need to make major scale backs in emissions. The world would have to reduce the nearly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide being emitted by 1 billion. By 2050 coal would need to be nearly or completely eliminated as an energy source. But, by 2050, we'll have a projected two billion additional people on earth. Land currently being used for food, would need to be converted for growing trees as well as crops intended for energy use.
In addition to making efforts to scale back emissions, the world will need to implement negative-emission programs. However, experts are not sure if these can be implemented on a large scale throughout the world as these technologies aren't as advanced as one would hope.
Humans have a maximum ten to fourteen years to continue emitting greenhouse gases. Once the world exceeds this point, there's no return. By 2100 if we continue at this rate the world's temperature may increase by as much as four degrees. This increase in temperature will be devastating for the world as many species could go extinct. Currently, the world is going through a mass extinction, known as the Holocene extinction, the earth's sixth mass extinction. This is partially due to the rate of global warming, caused by humans. Animals are going extinct at a faster rate than seen before. Studies have shown that 50% of all individual animals have been lost in past years, a concerning amount. If we don't make efforts to prevent global warming, there could be even more adverse effects against even more species. If we're not careful, its possible that we may even be next.


Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn, https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/10/08/world-has-only-years-get-climate-change-under-control-un-scientists-say/?utm_term=.d1d88db7edf4