FALSE: THERE IS INDEED A CLIMATE CRISIS
Written by Odhiambo Shem on October 14, 2022
A twitter post claiming that there is no climate crisis is not true.
“Sea levels have not risen, they are not rising. Pacific islands are not being evacuated. There is no climate crisis”, states the claim.
According to the United Nations, no corner of the globe is immune from the devastating consequences of climate change. Rising temperatures are fueling environmental degradation, natural disasters, weather extremes, food and water insecurity, economic disruption, conflict, and terrorism. Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning. It is clear that business as usual is not good enough. As the infinite cost of climate change reaches irreversible highs, now is the time for bold collective action.
The last four years were the four hottest on record. According to a September 2019 World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report, we are at least one degree Celsius above pre industrial levels and close to what scientists warn would be “an unacceptable risk”. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change calls for holding eventual warming “well below” two degrees Celsius, and for the pursuit of efforts to limit the increase even further, to 1.5 degrees. But if we don’t slow global emissions, temperatures could rise to above three degrees Celsius by 2100, causing further irreversible damage to our ecosystems.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th Assessment Report (AR5), climate change is real and human activities, largely the release of polluting gasses from burning fossil fuel (coal, oil, gas), is the main cause.
We looked into this claim that there is no climate crisis and found it to be false. It misleads the public in regards to climate change and might lead to ignorance as far as response to climate change is concerned.
This fact-check was produced by Sky 106.1 FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.
