the moment of crisis has come in efforts
to tackle climate change Sir David
Attenborough has warned according to the
renowned naturalist and broadcaster we
have been putting things off for year
after year as I speak South East
Australia is on fire
why because the temperatures of the
earth are increasing he said sir David's
comments came in a BBC News interview to
launch a year of special coverage on the
subject of climate change scientists say
climate change is one of several factors
behind the Australian fires others
include how forests are managed in
natural patterns in the weather sir
David told me it was palpable nonsense
for some politicians and commentators to
suggest that the Australian fires were
nothing to do with the world becoming
warmer we know perfectly well he said
the human activity is behind the heating
of the planet what does Sir David mean
by at the moment of krisis he's
highlighting the fact that while climate
scientists are becoming clearer about
the need for a Rapid Response the pace
of international negotiations is
grindingly slow the most recent talks in
Madrid last month were branded a
disappointment by the UN Secretary
General the British government and
others decisions on key issues were put
off in several countries including
Australia and Brazil were accused of
trying to dodge their commitments we
have to realize that this is not playing
games
Sir David said this is not just having a
nice little debate arguments and then
coming away with a compromise this is an
urgent problem that has to be solved and
what's more we know how to do it that's
the paradoxical thing that we're
refusing to take steps that we know have
to be taken what are those steps back in
2018 the UN climate science panel
spelled out how the world could have a
reasonable chance of avoiding the most
dangerous temperature rises in future it
said that emissions of the gases heating
the planet from power stations and
factories vehicles and agriculture
should be almost half by 2030
instead the opposite is happening the
release of those gasses is still
increasing rather than falling in the
key gas carbon dioxide is now in the
atmosphere at a level far above anything
experienced in human history as Sir
David put it every year that passes
makes those steps more and more
difficult to achieve why does this
matter right now
this year is seen as a vital opportunity
to turn the tide on climate change the
UK is hosting what's billed as a crucial
UN summit known as cop20
in November ahead of that gathering
governments worldwide are coming under
pressure to toughen their targets for
cutting emissions that's because their
current pledges do not go nearly far
enough assuming they are delivered as
promised and there's no guarantee of
that there could still be a rise in the
global average temperature of more than
3 C by the end of the century compared
to pre-industrial levels the latest
assessment by the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change IPCC lays bare
the dangers of that it suggests that a
rise of anything above 1.5 C would mean
that coastal flooding heat waves and
damage to coral reefs would become more
severe and the latest figures show that
the world has already warmed by just
over 1 see what happens next as things
stand further heating looks inevitable
we're already living in a changed world
according to Professor ed Hawkins of the
University of Reading a scientist whose
depictions of global warming have often
gone viral on social media he uses bold
colored stripes to show how much each
year's temperature is above or below
average different shades of red for
warmer and blue for colder the designs
now adorn t-shirts scarves and even a
tram in Germany at the moment professor
Hawkins uses dark red to denote the
highest level of warming but regions
such as the Arctic Ocean have seen that
maximum level year after year such as
the scale of change that he's having to
search for new colors I'm thinking about
adding dark purple or even black he told
me to convey future increases in
temperature
people might think climate change is a
distant prospect but we're seeing so
many examples around the world like in
Australia have new records and new
extremes what else is on the
environmental agenda this year the
natural world and whether we can stop
harming it while most political
attention will be on climate change 2020
is also seen as potentially important
for halting the damage human activity is
having on ecosystems
Sir David has a blunt explanation for
why this matters we actually depend upon
the natural world for every breath of
air we take in every mouthful of food
that we eat world leaders are being in
to the Chinese city of Kunming for a
major conference on how to safeguard
nature a landmark report last year
warned that as many as 1 million species
of animals insects and plants are
threatened with extinction in the coming
decades
a more recent study found that the
growth of cities the clearing of forests
for farming in the soaring demand for
fish had significantly altered nearly
three-quarters of the land and more than
two-thirds of the oceans one of the
scientists involved professor Andy
Purvis of the Natural History Museum in
London says that by undermining
important habitats were hacking away in
our safety net we're trashing
environments we depend on he points to
the impact of everything from the use of
palm oil and processed food and shampoo
to the pressures created by fast fashion
and while the need for conservation is
understood in many developed countries
professor Purvis says we've exported the
damage to countries too poor to handle
the environmental cost of what they're
selling to us the gathering in Kunming
takes place in October a month before
the UN climate summit in Glasgow
confirming this year is crucial for our
relations with the planet
