Episode 1640
Climate change
Sun, 2021-Oct-31 00:58 UTC
Length - 4:05
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Sunday, 31 October 2021 is Climate change.
Contemporary climate change includes both global warming caused by humans, and its impacts on Earth's weather patterns. There have been previous periods of climate change, but the current changes are more rapid than any known events in Earth's history. The main cause is the emission of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Burning fossil fuels for energy use creates most of these emissions. Agriculture, steel making, cement production, and forest loss are also significant sources. Temperature rise is also affected by climate feedbacks such as the loss of sunlight-reflecting snow cover, and the release of carbon dioxide from drought-stricken forests. Collectively, these amplify global warming.
On land, temperatures have risen about twice as fast as the global average. Deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common. Increased warming in the Arctic has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss. Higher temperatures are also causing more intense storms and other weather extremes. In places such as coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic, many species are forced to relocate, or become extinct, as their environment changes. Climate change threatens people with food and water scarcity, increased flooding, extreme heat, more disease, and economic loss. It can also drive human migration. The World Health Organization calls climate change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. Even if efforts to minimise future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include sea level rise, and warmer, more acidic oceans. Many of these impacts are already felt at the current level of warming, which is about 1.2 °C (2 °F). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects even greater impacts as warming continues to 1.5 °C and beyond. Additional warming also increases the risk of triggering tipping points. Responding to these changes involves taking actions to limit the amount of warming, and to adapt to them. Future warming can be reduced (mitigated) by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and removing them from the atmosphere. This will involve using more wind and solar energy, phasing out coal, and increasing energy efficiency. Switching to electric vehicles, and to heat pumps for homes and commercial buildings, will further limit emissions. Protecting and enhancing forests can help absorb CO2. Some communities may adapt to climate change through better coastline protection, disaster management, and development of more resistant crops. By themselves, these efforts to adapt cannot avert the risk of severe, widespread and permanent impacts. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nations collectively agreed to keep warming "well under 2 °C" through mitigation efforts. However, with pledges made under the Agreement, global warming would still reach about 2.7 °C by the end of the century. Limiting warming to 1.5 °C would require halving emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:58 UTC on Sunday, 31 October 2021.
For the full current version of the article, see Climate change on Wikipedia.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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This has been Kevin Neural. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
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