CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY EVIDENCE
This Evidence page links to all the information pages on the CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE website — showing why global climate change today is certainly the greatest danger ever to the survival of billions of the most climate vulnerable, and why we are now all in peril, making this a state of global emergency.
The evidence is overwhelming that the still accelerating concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases and ocean acidification are not only beyond dangerous but are catastrophically dangerous. The entire world is in a state of dire emergency. However, though a few leaders in the scientific and political worlds have urged recognition of this terrible global situation, international negotiations and national policy making are going on under the delusion that "dangerous" is still in the future. There is a problem in how the scientific evidence is being managed. The IPCC assessment process is designed to assess on the basis of very high probability, not on risk. In many cases, low-probability impacts (according to today's available research) present huge intolerable risks to large human populations. The standard precautionary risk assessment formula of
Risk = Probability x Magnitude would take care of most catastrophic risk-aversion situations (for which there should be zero tolerance) — but is not being applied.

Global greenhouse gas emissions, atmospheric CO2 levels, deforestation, fossil fuel use, and global temperature are increasing exponentially.
"When it comes to climate change, the scientific evidence has to be at the core of any decision-making. Governments need to understand the consequences of choosing particular targets, but they also need to understand what will happen if targets are missed or if they cannot be agreed on by all countries. Failures could have far- reaching consequences. ...[T]he risks of dangerous climate change will not increase slowly as greenhouse gases increase. Rather, the risks will multiply if we do not reduce emissions fast enough." — Dr. Vicky Pope, Head of Climate Change Advice, Met Office Hadley Centre, UK, in
The Scientific Evidence for Early Action on Climate Change
(Click on the image to open/download a larger version.)
Links to Evidence Pages
- What is the current state of the climate?
What is "dangerous" climate change?
Why is climate change an emergency?
Ignored — but essential — climate science
UNEP 2009 Year Book and climate change
"NASA's James Hansen Says Atmospheric CO2 is Already Beyond Safe Limit" There's a big gap between what's understood about global warming by the scientific community and what is known by the public and policymakers.... Time is running out to prevent catastrophic consequences from global warming. Hundreds of millions of people will lose fresh water sources and hundreds of millions of others will be displaced by rising sea levels if fossil fuel emissions remain on their current course. The evidence indicates we've aimed too high — that the safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 is no more than 350 ppm.... To preserve creation, the planet on which civilization developed, we must draw down carbon dioxide to less than 350 parts per million.
— Physicist James E. Hansen, Director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Doctors and other health professionals are careful to practise evidence-based medicine, which is informed by valid, rigorous and replicable research. Medical responses to the climate change emergency should also be based on sound, peer-reviewed research.The mission of CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE includes educating health and healing professionals about the unprecedented planetary emergency of global climate change, to enable them to educate their professional associations and policy makers at all levels.
To meet these goals, this website synthesizes and provides links to the best and most current published literature for understanding the global climate change emergency, plus - already occurring and inevitable IMPACTS
- current TRENDS, and
- RISKS to population health, especially the risk to vulnerable subpopulations and the risk to humanity from catastrophic climate change.
Go to Emergency Action
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Go to State of the Climate
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