Our Future with the Climate Emergency

 World Economic Forum warns of the cataclysmic consequences of climate change. 

The 2030s:

• Ice caps and crucial ice sheets continued to melt, swelling sea levels by 20 centimeters [7.87 inches]
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• 90 percent of coral reefs are threatened by human activity, while around 60 percent are highly endangered
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• Dwindling crop yields have pushed more than 100 million more people into extreme poverty
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• Climate change-related illnesses are killing an extra 250,000 people each year

The 2040s:

• The world has already shot past its 1.5-degree Celsius [2.7-degree Fahrenheit] Paris Agreement temperature rise limit
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• Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Thailand are threatened by annual floods, sparking mass migration
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• Eight percent of the global population has seen a severe reduction in water availability
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• The Arctic is now ice-free in summer
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• Sea levels have risen 20 centimeters [two feet] in the Gulf of Mexico, where hurricanes now deliver devastating storm surges.

The 2050s:

• Two billion people now face 60-degree Celsius [140 degrees Fahrenheight] temperatures for more than a 10th of the year
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• In much of the world, masks are needed daily – not for disease prevention, but to protect your lungs from smog
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• The Northeast United States now sees 25 major floods a year, up from one in 2020
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• 140 million people are displaced by food and water insecurity or extreme weather events

From 2100 and beyond:

The average global temperature has soared more than four degrees Celsius [7.2 degrees Fahrenheit] – and even more in northern latitudes

Rising sea levels have rendered coastlines unrecognizable, and Florida has largely disappeared

Coral reefs have largely vanished, taking with them a quarter of the world's fish habitats

Insects have also been consigned to history, causing massive crop failures due to the lack of pollinators

Severe drought now affects more than 40 percent of the planet

An area the size of Massachusetts burns in the US every year

Southern Spain and Portugal have become a desert, tipping millions into food and water insecurity