John Burns, PRESS DEMOCRAT
As world leaders convened at the annual U.N. climate conference in November, scientists reported that carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere had reached another record — 423 parts per million, more than 50% higher than preindustrial levels.
As a result, 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded and 2024 in on track to be even hotter. The cause: Humanity’s unabated burning of coal, oil and natural gas has unleashed massive amounts of CO2.
The result is more frequent and intense wildfires, prolonged droughts, hotter heat waves, increasingly destructive hurricanes, deadlier floods, ocean acidification, sea level rise, species extinctions and collapsing fisheries.
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John Burns
According to climate scientists, unless immediate action is taken to rapidly phase out fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable energy, our worsening climate poses grave threats to human civilization in the decades ahead.
But such critical action is not happening fast enough. Despite Congress having adopted historic climate legislation two years ago, global energy demand is growing faster than clean energy is expanding.
If only the world was following Sonoma County’s lead.
Read more at https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/opinion/sonoma-county-climate-change-emissions-energy/