China Is the Climate-Change Battleground
The U.S. and other developed nations must pitch in and help clean up the world’s dirtiest economy.
Oh, for some fresh air.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images AsiaPacClimate change is a menace. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just issued a report showing how serious the situation is. If warming continues on its current trajectory, the report warns, then by the end of this century average temperatures will be 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.
That may not sound like a big rise, but in fact the results will be catastrophic. Already, the world has warmed by 1 degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution started, and the effects are starting to be apparent -- the ice in the Arctic is vanishing, devastating hurricanes like Michael and Maria are becoming more common, and wildfires are gobbling up homes and businesses in California. An additional 3 degrees rise would be far more dire -- large parts of major coastal cities would be flooded and become uninhabitable, global food production would be in danger, storms and heat waves would reach epic proportions, and flooding and starvation would create waves of desperate refugees clamoring for entry to the U.S. and Europe. Even a rise of only 1 more degree -- which now seems inevitable -- will carry serious consequences.