The IPCC climate report is grim — but there is still room for hope

There is only a small window in which to mitigate the worst effects. So make a change now, and make it one you can stick to, writes Alice Bell

Following the publication of the IPCC report on Monday, Fridays For Future Dublin held a snap demonstration to protest the lack of action in relation to climate change. The protest took place at the gates of Leinster House.

If the prospect of nuclear war wasn’t enough, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) picked this week to drop its latest report on the state of the climate crisis.

The key findings are bleak, if familiar. Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly; many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted. Nowhere will be spared. “The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-chair of the working group producing this report. These health impacts are physical — ​​increased chance of dengue fever, for example, or cardiovascular disease — but also mental: the suffering of living through storms, famine, heat stress, and the loss of homes and cultures.