Angry Much? Climate Change Is Going Viral This Week For All The Right Reasons

Climate change is one those topics that you might hear over and over again, but when it comes to taking meaningful action, things can come to a standstill.

Just last week, the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a staggering report.

They concluded that a million species are now facing extinction, “many within decades.”

“What’s at stake here is a livable world,” says Robert Watson, who acted as chairman for IPBES. Among the things that are ruining nature include:

• Seventy-five percent  land has been “severely altered” by human activities.
• One hundred million hectares tropical forest have been destroyed between 1980 and 2000.
• Wetlands, which provide clean water and fish, are being destroyed three times faster than forests.
• Plastic pollution has increased 10-fold since 1980 and 300 million to 400 million tons industrial waste are dumped each year.

When grouping all the issues together, the top three direct drivers change in nature include 1. changes in land and sea use 2. direct exploitation organisms and, course, 3. climate change.

The report reads:

“Since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, raising average global temperatures by at least 0.7 degrees Celsius – with climate change already impacting nature from the level ecosystems to that genetics – impacts expected to increase over the coming decades, in some cases surpassing the impact land and sea use change and other drivers.”

So yea, things are kind urgent.

But do people care? 

Well this week, some pretty big names upped the urgency and all forms niceness went out the window.

Remember Bill Nye the Science Guy? The supposedly kid-friendly T.V. host who anchored a fun show about science on PBS?

Well he pretty much cursed out anyone who wasn’t taking climate change seriously in a viral episode Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

When explaining carbon pricing — or the idea that companies should pay a fine for carbon emissions since they contribute to climate change — John Oliver also brought up the Green New Deal. The large policy proposal, most notably spearhead by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, lists a number strategies and suggestions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (such as carbon) and to center an economy around clean, renewable energy.