(PBS)
In front of a gathering of arguably the most powerful leaders in the world, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg opened with a warning: “We’ll be watching you.” Thunberg made her speech to the United Nations Climate Summit in New York City on Monday, serving as an ostensible reminder to most nations of their Paris accord pledges to reduce carbon emissions.
The summit kicked off a day after the UN released a report outlining the current status of the Earth’s carbon emissions and atmospheric tumult. Aside from the revelation that 2015 to 2019 appears to be the warmest five-year period in history, the report cited how far nations will need to go to waylay the worst outcomes of global warming. In order to limit warming to just 2 degrees Celsius, the effectiveness of global climate policies need to triple in scale, the report said.
That’s especially true for the top-10 global emitters of carbon dioxide, as measured by the European Commission in 2017...Read more