Draining Peru’s Lake Palcacocha to lessen the risk of an outburst flood, in which a large ice block from a melting glacier plunges into a lake, causing a deluge downslope. (Photo by Barbara Fraser)
Latin America is highly vulnerable to climate change and increasingly feeling its effects, but its adaptation efforts are spotty and lack reliable data on what works best, says the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In a 3,600-page report issued on Feb. 28, the IPCC’s Working Group 2 cites an urgent need for countries worldwide to adapt to climate-driven phenomena such as rising seas, longer droughts and shifting rainfall patterns. The authors note that impacts of climate change—and thus adaptation strategies—vary within regions and even within countries. The report buttresses the IPCC’s longstanding position that average global temperatures must not be allowed to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. That means reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero by 2050 to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, but the world is currently on track to fall far short of that goal... [Log in to read more]
