translated from Spanish: Terram Foundation publishes citizen card warning impacts of climate change in Chile

“The human species, known as Homo sapiens, emerged approximately 200 thousand years ago on Earth, representing only 2 seconds on a 12-hour clock symbolizing the life of the planet. In that time span, we have managed to transform it,” notes in its introduction the Citizen’s Letter on Climate Change, a document recently published by Fundación Terram, which continues to detail the impacts that our species has had on the Earth in this short period of time.
Terram’s paper delves into explaining the phenomenon of climate change since human beings inhabit this planet, a period in which there have been indelible changes about it, and more from the 20th century onwards. Since then, the scientific community has pointed out that we are entering a new geological age: the Anthropocene or the Capitalocene, since it is our consumer society that has generated drastic changes in the components of the Global Climate System. One of the most obvious records is that our species and its habits have led to an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 415 ppm, a historical value not reached for 3 million years in the Earth.
This data impacts at first glance, but the impact is greater when we understand the implications of global warming and how it influences the planet’s climate. To this end, it is valuable to understand concepts such as “greenhouse effect”, “greenhouse gases”, “vulnerability”, “mitigation”, “adaptation”, among other terms defining the card, whose objective is to make available to all citizens a document explaining the complexities of climate change, the impacts of which are already evident in our daily lives.
Throughout its 39 pages, the document also details a series of impacts that this phenomenon will bring both nationally and globally, emphasizing that Chile is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change because it meets seven of the nine criteria established by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and which is therefore among the 10 countries that will be most affected by the effects of global warming.
Examples of the consequences Chile might see include: decreaseins rainfall throughout the territory, with the exception of the highland zone and the southern end, where these will increase; sea level rise between 16 and 28 centimeters for the most severe scenario and 14 and 24 centimeters for the more moderate; significant reduction in flows in the basins between the Coquimbo and Los Lagos regions; among other effects that will increase extreme weather events.
The Terram document concludes by detailing the main actions that are being developed in the face of the problem of global warming, defining the international negotiating bodies that will bring to life the realization of version 25 of the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP25) between 2 and 13 December in Chile. In addition, it has a chapter entitled “What is Chile doing on climate change?”, which details the most relevant public policies in this area, which are linked to the requirements of the UNFCCC and among which are measures such as the decarbonization, green taxes, the use of unconventional renewable energy (NCRE), among others.
However, all political actions require more effort, as the commitments made so far by the various parties to the UNFCCC remain timid. Therefore, the letter of Fundación Terram concludes by inviting each citizen to adopt lifestyles less dependent on material abundance, since “the future of life on the planet is not written”, but we are all part of its plot.
DOWNLOAD THE CITIZEN’S CLIMATE CHANGE CARD HERE

Original source in Spanish