tl;dr: climate change is real. Time to change habits – how we eat, build houses, transport ourselves and things, and where and how we live.

1. I’m not qualified to be an alarmist, but I can read.

2. With respect to climate change, your beliefs do not matter

Two years ago, I asked, “Would you buy a house in (or near) a flood plain?”

That question has taken on greater urgency with the release of the IPCC report that states that rapid action is needed, lest humanity face, to mention a few, more famine, mass migration, floods, and even more severe weather.

Albemarle supervisors rank climate goals highest priority for strategic plan

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors ranks the development of a climate action plan as the county’s highest priority for the coming years.

…

The FY19 budget includes funding for an energy program coordinator, who will help develop and evaluate the county’s climate action plan. The coordinator also will follow up on the plan’s goals. The county budgeted $100,000 in the current fiscal year to support those goals.

Start with “let’s work with the City of Charlottesville to develop AND IMPLEMENT a comprehensive transportation plan that works to provide opportunities and incentives to encourage people to walk/ride bikes and/or live closer to the things that matter to them.”

Spending $100K on a study to craft a report that will lead to a workgroup will be far too little, far too late.

UN Says Climate Genocide Is Coming. It’s Actually Worse Than That.

If you are alarmed by those sentences, you should be — they are horrifying. But it is, actually, worse than that — considerably worse. That is because the new report’s worst-case scenario is, actually, a best case. In fact, it is a beyond-best-case scenario. What has been called a genocidal level of warming is already our inevitable future. The question is how much worse than that it will get.

If you’re not scared and concerned, you’re not paying attention.

Widespread, sustained disasters like drought, wildfire, and flooding will affect virtually every human on the planet within their lifetimes, according to a dire new assessment of the global impacts of climate change.

Within a few dozen years, many of the world’s most vulnerable communities will be forced to adjust to new realities of poverty, famine, and social unrest—decades earlier than previous timelines have predicted.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report, which was published ahead of a United Nations meeting in Incheon, South Korea, says that previous efforts to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will not be enough to mitigate serious impacts. The report directs policymakers to aim for a new target of 1.5 degrees—which would reduce the number of people “susceptible to poverty by up to several hundred million by 2050.”

The report calls for nothing less than a complete overhaul of the world economy, which its 132 authors agree is scientifically possible—but, for the U.S. particularly, politically unlikely

One of the Co-Chairs of #IPCC's Working Group II, Debra Roberts, on the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C #sr15#ipcc30 #climatechange #globalgoals pic.twitter.com/JBckAzpr3m

— IPCC (@IPCC_CH) October 10, 2018

More Reading

• The IPCC report (PDF)
• Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040
• Cities have 15 months left to slow climate change, says new report
• Wealth Adviser: Limit Real Estate Holdings in Coastal Cities Due to Climate Change
• North Carolina, Warned of Rising Seas, Chose to Favor Development
• Climate change will make the next global crash the worst
• Extreme heat, deluges and economic pain: What the UN climate report says for North America
• What Are Our Contingencies for Catastrophic Climate Change?
• Miami’s Existence Is Threatened With As Little As 18? Of Sea Level Rise
• Miami Will Be Underwater Soon. Its Drinking Water Could Go First
• Will climate change turn Miami into a ‘future Atlantis’?
• 10 ways to accelerate progress against climate change
• The Hurricanes, and Climate-Change Questions, Keep Coming. Yes, They’re Linked.
• The Planet Can’t Survive Our Transportation Habits