6We can’t immediately stop climate change

Stopping greenhouse gases

If greenhouse gas emissions are the cause of climate change, could stopping them stop climate change? Sadly, the answer is no. Even if we could completely stop greenhouse gas emissions at this moment, climate change would not instantly stop. This means that temperatures would continue to rise. Now that might make you feel like we don’t have to do anything, but that’s not true either.

Supercomputer calculations predict that if we continue emitting greenhouse gases like we are now, worldwide temperatures will rise by an average of about 4°C between now and the end of the 21st century. (See the red area in Graph 5.)

As climate change progresses, the impacts that we already know will get stronger.

That’s why it is important that we slow the pace of climate change to reduce these effects.

To do this, we need to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we emit and stop emissions where we can. This is mitigation. In a future where the world is able to successfully mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the average global temperature will rise only another 1°C by the end of the 21st century. (See the blue area in Graph 5.)

Figure 5: Predicted differences from the average global temperature based on modern temperatures
(annual average temperatures between 1986 and 2005)

Mitigation and adaptation are both important to the impact of climate change

Even if we successfully mitigate climate change, the impact of climate change will continue at least a little, like in the example of rising temperatures.

That is, the impact of climate change can be mitigated but cannot be totally stopped.

That might make you feel helpless, but we are not helpless. There are many ways you can adapt to these effects, just like you adapt to heat by opening a window and drinking lots of water.

Depending on the type of effect and its severity, all of us can take different actions.

We need to act in two ways: by mitigating -- holding climate change back -- and adapting -- reducing the impact of climate change.

Figure 6: Mitigation and Adaptation