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Opinion | An intelligent species would protect the Earth. So why are we destroying it?
- Climate change is all around us, from severe flooding causing huge economic damage to deadly wildfires pumping out more greenhouse gases
- Hong Kong needs to raise energy efficiency standards, decarbonise the economy and promote green investment to get to carbon zero by 2050
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When I was in primary school, teachers often said that humankind was the most intelligent of all species. I accepted this until I realised how many human acts are actually detrimental to nature. If humankind is so intelligent, why do we keep messing up our only home?
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Though we may not intend to damage the environment, unexamined consequences can have a profound effect over time. The depletion of the ozone layer discovered in the mid-1980s and today’s climate crisis are prime examples.
The latest assessment report released this month by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that there is an undeniable connection between human-caused warming and extreme weather. It reminds the world that we will have to confront harsh, irreversible consequences such as a continuous sea-level rise, wildfires and more frequent floods and droughts.
The atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration has risen from 316.9 parts per million to 417 parts per million since 1960. This rapid increase has led to global temperature rises; the past six years have been the hottest years on record. The Earth is likely to warm beyond the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold by the early 2030s, much sooner than the IPCC had predicted.
The panel also predicts that, in the worst-case scenario, the Earth will be around 3.3 degrees hotter than pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Only immediate, deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions can prevent global temperatures from crossing the 1.5 degree threshold within the next 20 years.
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Global warming dangerously close to being out of control: US climate report
Global warming dangerously close to being out of control: US climate report
Last month brought severe floods in Zhengzhou and some European countries, resulting in hundreds of deaths and huge economic losses. At the same time, deadly wildfires burned across countries in Europe, North America and Siberia, pumping out still more greenhouse gases to warm the planet.
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