The Climate Crisis

With more frequent extreme weather events around the world, most people now accept something has changed with the climate, but how well do we comprehend the scale of the problem our children and grandchildren face?

The problem of man-made global temperature change from the burning of fossil fuels was first predicted (with remarkable accuracy) by Arrhenius in 1898 and has been increasingly well documented since the 1950s.  In 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up by the United Nations to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.   

The landmark IPCC reports fuelled the 2015 Paris Agreement at which nations pledged to take actions to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C.  But the actions to achieve that are not yet in place.  

In a very measured lecture in April 2021 for Surrey University, top scientist Dame Julia King (Baroness Brown of Cambridge – a member of the government’s own Committee on Climate Change) used Met Office data to make four key points about climate breakdown:  

"The rate of global average temperature increase is accelerating, with the 5 of hottest years on record occurring in the last 5 years."  

"With no remedial action, Earth will be some 2.4° warmer by 2050.  Even with drastic action, the best we can hope for is keep the increase to 1.7-1.8°. "

"Extreme summer temperatures will be typical be 2050.  In SE England we can expect to see 40° temperatures regularly.  This is because – as Climate Scientist BruceCallander explained in his zoom talk for Greener Betchworth – the temperature rise is not spread evenly between the equator and poles.  In southern England we’d experience double that average rise:  nearly 5° with no action, 3.5° at best."   

“If we fail to keep to the Paris Compliant path, and continue up the red bars on graph 2 there are parts of this chart you really do not want to be wishing on your children and grandchildren, in terms of the world they might be living in”.  

If you would like to submit photos or would be interested in writing a blog on this topic we would love to hear from you – email the Re-Betchworth Biodiversity team at hello@re-betchworth.org.