COP28: U.S. should feel the heat do more to stop climate change

The start of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference on Thursday is a reminder the United States needs to do much more to solve climate change.

The reasons are everywhere. Earlier this month, the Fifth National Climate Assessment reported all areas of the country are directly or indirectly at risk for heat waves, heavy rains, drought, hurricanes, floods and wildfires that “are becoming more frequent and/or severe.”

That’s occurring, the report said, even though heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions have fallen from their U.S. peak, and efforts to reduce emissions have expanded since 2018. But that hasn’t prevented property owners in some areas from facing soaring insurance premiums or struggling to find insurance at any price.

It’s become increasingly clear that only a huge shift away from burning fossil fuels — which adds to atmospheric carbon dioxide — can prevent the worst effects of climate change. Yet the topic seems to have dropped down an alarming number of notches in the national discussion.

This year’s annual climate summit, officially called the Conference of the Parties and known as COP28, should bring the risk of global perils back to the forefront. It’s unfortunate that President Joe Biden reportedly isn’t attending, although he has been at previous conferences, and Pope Francis has canceled on doctor’s orders. Their presence would help bring attention to the important issues under discussion.

Rising temperatures bring hottest year ever

At the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the nations in attendance vowed to work to keep the Earth’s overall temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius over what it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution.

But on Nov. 20, the U. N.’s Emissions Gap Report 2023 said even meeting the Paris goals would set the stage for an overall global temperature increase of 2.5 degrees to 2.9 degrees Celsius. And nations as a whole are not even meeting the Paris goals. To get there, they would have to to reduce their emissions by 42% by the end of the decade.

Now, as thousands of world leaders, climate scientists, big-city mayors, environmentalists and corporate execs gather in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, researchers worry that temperature limit may be exceeded this year, as human activities keep turning up the heat.

With an El Niño settled in, the Pacific Ocean has reached temperatures never recorded before. This year is expected to be the hottest ever recorded. And, although climate has varied over the history of the Earth, it never has changed at such an alarming rate. Species the world over are struggling to adapt, with no assurance they will survive.

Yes, there is good news. Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, told us “a lot of money has been spent” on projects to combat climate change, many of them funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

But a White House report says weather-related disasters are already costing Americans at least $150 billion a year. Whereas billion-dollar disasters struck every four months in the 1980s, they now spread destruction every three weeks, the report says.

From remote Antarctica, where ice is melting after millions of years in the deep freeze, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week, “We absolutely need to act immediately.”

Unfortunately, too few people are willing to act. According to a Pew Research Center report in August, only one in four Republicans considers climate change a major threat. None of the Republican presidential candidates promises to be a vigorous leader on climate change, and former President Donald Trump has called it a hoax.

As various elections approach, Chicago area residents should demand their local, state and national leaders make a priority of saving the planet.

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