(Illustration: ‘Mosiak II,’ by MC Escher, and found here).

I caught the headlines Friday, and maybe a quick scan of a couple of articles, but nothing in-depth and no post (although I generally post major shit warnings on climate), but I kind of viewed it as just another accelerating number of environmental warnings — ‘red flag,’ hysterical warnings, as well as general bell-ringing warnings — through research/studies/analysis from climate science groups like the UN — my last ‘red flag‘ post here, a bell-ringer here.
And on Friday, the most recent, a UN Synthesis report (CNN):

The planet is careening toward warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — far above what scientists say the world should be targeting — according to a report on global emissions targets by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Scientists have said that the planet needs to slash 45% of its emissions by 2030 to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century. But under current emissions commitments from countries there will be a 16% increase in emissions in 2030 compared to 2010 levels, according to the report.
That would lead the planet to warm to 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the report says.
Scientists have said global temperatures should remain below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels to stave off the worse consequences of the climate crisis. A UN report in August showed global temperature is already around 1.2 degrees of warming.
In a statement about today’s report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called the planet’s current path “catastrophic.”

Normal report for the nowadays — all climate shit is ‘catastrophic.’ Yet what makes this UN Synthesis report somewhat important and special is all the upcoming meetings, like the 76th session of the UN General Assembly set to start tomorrow in New York.
And in November, COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, supposedly a make-it-or-break-it moment for climate change.
So in New York next week, along with COVID, Afghanistan, and other incendiary items, climate change will be a big UN subject. Background on the coming festivities via The Washington Post this afternoon:

But with only six weeks left until a crucial global climate summit in Scotland, presidents and prime ministers also face pressure to set aside these diplomatic tensions and act quickly and collectively to slow the warming of the planet — something they have struggled to do in the past.

“We have reached a tipping point on the need for climate action,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned Thursday, in one of his latest pleas for unity and urgency.
“The disruption to our climate and our planet is already worse than we thought, and it is moving faster than predicted. … We must act now to prevent further irreversible damage.”

This week’s U.N. General Assembly marks one of the last high-profile opportunities for countries to publicly commit to more ambitious, concrete action to cut greenhouse gas emissions ahead of November’s climate summit in Glasgow.
So far, such promises from some of the world’s biggest economies have failed to materialize, despite a full-court press from the Biden administration, the European Union and other advocates.

On Monday, Guterres and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson are scheduled to host a closed-door gathering — part in person, part virtual — of several dozen national leaders, including a mix of the world’s largest and most powerful nations alongside poorer countries hit hardest by climate change.
…
“They have to send some messages that we can still hang together,” Laurence Tubiana, chief executive of the European Climate Foundation, said of the need for countries to separate trade wars, national security squabbles and other fights from the need to join forces on climate change.

“It’s a common threat,” said Tubiana, a key architect of the 2015 Paris agreement.
“Climate change ignores power politics. It doesn’t care how many armies you have, how many weapons you have. … We saw in the pandemic when we don’t organize collectively how damaging it is. Climate is just much worse.”

And the past on the future:

In 2014, President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping sealed a deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions a full year ahead of the gathering in Paris, making that global accord possible.
The run-up to the U.N. summit in Glasgow has proven vastly different.

A year ago, there were no advance negotiations, in part because President Donald Trump, who called climate change a hoax and played it down as a threat, made the United States the only nation to formally withdraw from the Paris accord. Also, much of the world was shut down because of the novel coronavirus.

“The ability to come together has really been upended by covid,” said Pete Ogden, president of the U.N. Foundation and former senior director for energy at the Domestic Policy Council and National Security Council.

COVID multiplied by the T-Rump and you get ‘catastrophic.’

Here we are, once again…

(Illustration out front: M.C Escher’s ‘Three Spheres II,’ found here).