Earth is a wilder, warmer place since last climate deal made

Science

Earth is a wilder, warmer place since last climate deal made

This time, it’s a hotter, waterier, wilder Earth that world leaders are trying to save. The last time that the nations of the world struck a binding agreement to fight global warming was 1997, in Kyoto, Japan. As leaders gather for a conference in Paris on Monday to try to do more, it’s clear things have changed dramatically over the past 18 years. As a result, climate change is seen as a more urgent and concrete problem than it was last time.

At the time of Kyoto, if someone talked about climate change, they were talking about something that was abstract in the future. Now, we’re talking about changing climate, something that’s happening now. You can point to event after event that is happening in the here and now that is a direct result of changing climate.

Marcia McNutt, the former U.S. Geological Survey director who was picked to run the National Academies of Sciences

Some differences can be measured: degrees on a thermometer, trillions of tons of melting ice, a rise in sea level of a couple of inches. Epic weather disasters, including punishing droughts, killer heat waves and monster storms, have plagued Earth. Other, nonphysical changes since 1997 have made many experts more optimistic than in previous climate negotiations. Perhaps the biggest change is China. In Kyoto, China and developing countries weren’t required to cut emissions. Global warming was seen as a problem for the U.S. and other rich nations to solve. That has changed dramatically, and perhaps decisively.

The negotiations are no longer defined by rich and poor. There’s a range of countries in the middle, emerging economies, and thankfully some of them have stepped up to shoulder some of the responsibility.

Former Vice President Al Gore