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Fortunately, the window of compatibility with climate change is still open, IRNA quoted Tajbakhsh as saying.

She made the remarks at the Seventh International Conference on Climate Change in Tehran on Tuesday.

Referring to the reports about weather in West Asia, Tajbakhsh noted that the highest temperature rise has been recorded in Iran and Iraq and the highest rainfall decline has been recorded in Afghanistan and Azerbaijan.

The issue of climate change has caused an increase in temperature on a global scale. The report related to Asia in 2022 indicates that the increase in the occurrence of extreme phenomena has caused serious damage such as the occurrence of severe floods, she explained.

Urban resilience is the ability or capacity of a city to survive and thrive in the face of disaster, any kind of disaster. It turns out that the capacities that cities or states, or nations need to survive and thrive in the face of all these different threats are pretty broad.

On January 28, Tajbakhsh said that the phenomenon of climate change on the planet has caused extreme weather conditions to the extent that new heatwave records and severe weather changes in the country were observed.

As international organizations have announced, the unprecedented rise in global temperatures has led summer 2023 to become the hottest summer ever, she added.

This means that the Earth’s atmosphere has grown warmer and the balance between the atmosphere and the ocean is lost.

The conference will focus on ‘climate change and its consequences’.

On the sidelines of the 7th international conference, roundtables and technical meetings will be held on topics including “Climate change and social resilience”;  “Land subsidence monitoring using remote radar sensing”;  “Policies, laws and perspectives relating to climate change at the national and international levels”; “Carbon footprint in medical and healthcare centers”; and “Spatial artificial intelligence, an approach to assess the effects of climate change on human health”, IRNA quoted Behzad Layeqi, an official with Metrological Organization, as saying.

“Climate forecasting patterns; Climate anomalies; Greenhouse gases; Modern technologies in climate change studies; Global warming effects; Climate change and agriculture; Climate change and water resources; Climate change and environment (soil, wildlife, air quality, lakes, rivers, and wetlands); Climate change and energy; Climate change and health; Climate change and its social and economic impacts; and Climate change and transportation” will be other axes of the conference.

National plan on climate change

In August 2013, Tajbakhsh said a national plan including resource management is needed to deal with the consequences of climate change.

“Today, climate change is known as a security issue in the world and everyone is aware of the effects and hazards posed by that,” she added, IRNA reported.

The official emphasized the need for launching action plans by all countries across the world to reduce greenhouse gases.

“Countries with poor infrastructure are more vulnerable to consequences of rising temperature such as power outages and droughts.”

Tajbakhsh went on to say that it requires global understanding and management to moderate the effects of climate change.

“A practical plan to reduce greenhouse gases should be drawn up for all countries within a geographical region,” she said, adding that Iran also needs a national plan to manage the issue in various areas.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Tajbakhsh said management of water resources should be based on climate change and the use of renewable sources of energy should be on the agenda.

“Unstable infrastructure and land use change are the main causes of numerous floods following torrential rains.”

“Unstable infrastructure and land use change are the main causes of numerous floods following torrential rains.”

She referred to dust storms as one of the consequences of drought, saying: “Climate change may increase wind speed in some areas, intensifying dust storms.”

“For this reason, the World Meteorological Organization emphasizes the need to set up impact-based systems in which weather forecasts can tell in detail what the consequences of an atmospheric phenomenon are in each region.”

“Data-driven information should be collected and integrated. It requires an increase in the number of radars and up-to-date meteorological equipment to monitor information,” Tajbakhsh concluded.

Impacts of climate change

In recent years, the issue of climate change has even become one of the major political issues of the world so the United Nations and many other governments have gotten involved in this issue.

Thanks to the climate change, the air temperature has increased. Warmer temperature increases the rate of evaporation, a good example of which is the Caspian Sea’s reduced volume of water.

On the other hand, there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of snowfall in the country and a change in the pattern of precipitation from snow to rain can be seen. But the total amount of rainfall has decreased as well.

Climate change has already inserted many harmful effects on our country, and if we do not take steps to adapt ourselves to the consequences of this phenomenon and observe environmental principles, in the future, more dangerous consequences will surely plague Iran and make the conditions more unfavorable for human, animal, and plant species.

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“Climate change is a regional issue that could lead to large migrations,” IRNA quoted Zare as saying on Tuesday in a meeting held on the occasion of science promotion week.

Land subsidence has already occurred in 400 out of 609 plains of the country, IRNA reported.

Land subsidence, a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface due to subsurface movement of earth materials is mainly caused by aquifer-system compaction, drainage, and decomposition of organic soils, underground mining, oil and gas extraction, hydro compaction, natural compaction, sinkholes, and thawing permafrost.

Subsidence results in significant economic losses in the form of structural damage and high maintenance costs. This affects roads and transportation networks, hydraulic infrastructure, sewage systems, buildings, and foundations. The total damage worldwide is estimated at billions of dollars annually.

He stated, “In Iran, 400 plains, especially in Tehran, Alborz, and Isfahan provinces are grappling with subsidence.”

Some 96 billion cubic meters of water is consumed in Iran annually, while the country’s total renewable water resources are only 90 billion cubic meters, he added.

Effective factors in land subsidence

Reports show that 98 percent of the subsidence is caused by excessive extraction of underground water and mismanagement of water resources.

Geologists call subsidence a “silent earthquake” because an earthquake is instantaneous and its effects are visible at the same time, but subsidence is the cause of environmental depletion and its impact appears gradually; which is becoming a big threat in the country.

With the spread of droughts and lack of proper water management, the gradual land subsidence has become a routine threat to the country.

When the amount of harvest is greater than the amount of nourishment of the underground aquifers, the earth moves downward and finally, the soil particles are compressed together, in such a situation, the phenomenon of subsidence takes on another meaning; It means “death of aquifers”.

The scope of this man-made phenomenon has advanced to such an extent that researchers in this field describe it with words such as “cancer”, “irreversible risk” and “death of the earth”.

In order to give a perspective of the country’s subsidence rate, the National Cartographic Center started a project in this field in 2016.

Morteza Seddiqi, an official with the Organization, told ISNA that using satellite data and images is one of the methods that have been implemented to check the rate of subsidence of the whole country.

“Based on the surveys carried out on these images, we have identified as many as 252 subsidence areas in the country.”

In 2021, Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh, the former head of the National Cartography Center, lamented that some 29 provinces are currently at risk of subsidence.

He named two factors of climate change and human intervention as the most important factors of land subsidence in the country and noted that it is expected that we take measures to reduce the pressure on the environment.

He added that 80 percent of the groundwater is withdrawn annually in Iran, which outpaces the global rate.

In the whole world, water resources withdrawal is between 3 to 20 percent, and when it reaches 40 to 60 percent it is considered problematic, and it will be a crisis when exceeding 60-80 percent, he noted.

Over the past decades, some of the aquifer levels dropped by 100 centimeters.

Inefficient irrigation methods in addition to digging illegal wells are the other main causes of groundwater extraction-induced subsidence, as out of 50,000 wells pumping underground water resources in the capital, 30,000 are illegal.

It should be noted that over the next 40 years, the country’s temperature will rise by 2.6 degrees on the Celsius Scale, which will increase the country’s need for more water resources.

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On October 24, the International Day Against Climate Change is celebrated.

The Day constitutes a global platform for climate action from all its perspectives, focusing on the establishment of strong policies, severe changes in the production model, effective technological developments, and, above all, creating climate awareness.

Many provinces of the country are facing water stress and some provinces have even reached the threshold of water crisis.

Currently ‘climate change’ is known as the most important environmental phenomenon that demands the rise of awareness among people.

In recent years, the issue of climate change has even become one of the major political issues of the world so the United Nations and many other governments have gotten involved in this issue.

Also, many conferences have been held globally focusing on climate change, such as the Conference of the Parties (COP) World Summit, the Group of Seven (G7) forum, and the United Nations General Assembly, which have all stressed and discussed the issues related to climate change.

Thanks to the climate change, the air temperature has increased. Warmer temperature increases the rate of evaporation, a good example of which is the Caspian Sea’s reduced volume of water.

The statistics of the Meteorological Organization show that in the last 50 years, the average air temperature of Iran has increased by about 2 degrees Celsius. In other words, the average air temperature of our country has increased by 0.4 degrees in every decade.

The important point is that the average minimum temperature increase has been higher than the average maximum temperature in the last five decades.

On the other hand, there has been a noticeable decrease in the amount of snowfall in the country and a change in the pattern of precipitation from snow to rain can be seen. But the total amount of rainfall has decreased as well.

One of the consequences of this problem is the drying up of wetlands and rivers in the country in recent years.

No allocation of water rights and mismanagement of water sources can be introduced as the main causes of drying wetlands.

However, it cannot be denied that climate change has played an important role in aggravating and accelerating this phenomenon.

Therefore, climate change and the lack of water rights both have caused most importantly, Lake Urmia, the country’s largest inland water area, to come close to drying up.

Climate change has already inserted many harmful effects on our country, and if we do not take steps to adapt ourselves to the consequences of this phenomenon and observe environmental principles, in the future, more dangerous consequences will surely plague Iran and make the conditions more unfavorable for human, animal, and plant species.

The senior policymakers of the country should pay serious attention to the issues related to climate change and plan to comply with the principles of sustainable development.

Unless action is taken soon, the adverse effects of climate change will continue to worsen in the future, particularly resulting in scarcity of freshwater.

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The United Nations has designated 2024 as the International Year of Camelids, acknowledging their roles in protecting ecosystems, conserving biodiversity, and ensuring food security in the face of climate change.

Yubak Dhoj G C, FAO Representative ad interim to Iran, in a message drew attention to the critical global issues of food security and climate change, and the significant role that camels play in addressing these challenges.

“Climate change exacerbates the risks to food security, particularly for vulnerable countries and populations. It leads to the loss of rural livelihoods, degradation of ecosystems, and disruptions in food systems. Additionally, indigenous communities, who rely heavily on biodiversity for their sustenance, face heightened vulnerability as biodiversity continues to decline,” Dhoj G C stated.

In the livestock sector, which is crucial for global food production, we encounter diverse challenges, including climate change, emerging diseases, competition for natural resources, and evolving demand for animal-source foods, he also warned.

Amidst these challenges, for centuries, camels have sustained Bedouins, nomads, and pastoral communities, thriving in harsh climatic conditions where other livestock struggles. Their adaptability, docility, and sustainability make them an attractive prospect for domestication and a vital addition to the food chain, he further highlighted.

Emphasizing the role of camels, he said that we observe World Camel Day on the 22nd of June every year, and with each passing year, the interest and support for camel development continue to grow, underscoring their untapped potential.

“It is worth mentioning that FAO Iran, through its TCP project on preserving the Bactrian camel, is at the forefront of efforts to safeguard this exceptional species from the brink of extinction,” from the biodiversity conservation point of view, he further noted.

Today, our goal is to deepen policymakers’ understanding of the camel’s significance and advocate for its integration into research and development policies. Together, we can work towards a more secure and sustainable future for food production, Dhoj G C concluded.

FAO announced readiness to provide technical support to the development of short-, medium- and long-term strategies for increasing the population of Bactrian camels, which is planned to be prepared by the government, relevant authorities, and the Scientific Camel Association of Iran.

It is also concluded that the government to prioritize the newly established Bactrian camel cooperative Co. and endeavor to raise more (inter)national funds for the conservation of Bactrian camels.

Also paying attention to Ecotourism with a special focus on the introduction of Bactrian camels should be regarded by the provincial authorities, as well as long-term planning for operational studies on Bactrian camels by academic institutes of Ardabil Province.

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The study highlights the vulnerability of human societies to fluctuating climates. According to the study, pronounced climate fluctuations and changed conditions for agriculture coincided with the rise and fall of the Persian Empires.

Today, most of Iran is a desert. But further back in history, the entire area experienced a lot of rainfall before the monsoon patterns changed. From the Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity, Iran was at the center of significant political and economic developments in the region, EurekAlert reported on January 17.

“Some 4,200 years ago, there was an Early Bronze Age community in Konar Sandal near Jiroft. Agriculture thrived, and an urban complex has been partly excavated at the site. However, something triggered the collapse of this highly developed Bronze Age community, and we were interested in what this could have been,” says Joyanto Routh, Professor at the Department for Thematic Studies at Linköping University, who led the study published in the Quaternary Science Reviews.

They examined sediments in a 2.5-meter-long peat core containing layer upon layer of material deposited over thousands of years.

The peat layers were dated using the Carbon-14 method. The researchers also conducted analyses of trace elements, pollen, and biomarkers and combined this with the existing archeological data to find out what plants and animals inhabited the area during different periods.

In the absence of historical records, tracing these signals could provide clues to whether people lived there, whether they cultivated anything, and, if so, what.

With this information, the researchers could reconstruct whether the climate was hot or cold, wet or dry. During wet periods, people engaged more in agriculture, which fed the population, and the community thrived.

People switched to a nomadic lifestyle in dry periods and abandoned the settlement but returned when favorable conditions resumed.

The researchers found that the area had experienced intermittent wet and dry periods. The first pollen record from Cerealia-type plants indicates that intensive agricultural practices began some 3,900 to 3,700 years ago. This period coincides with a relatively moist climate in the Jiroft Valley.

In contrast, 3,300 to 2,900 years ago, the weather in the valley was very dry and windy. Cerealia-type pollen levels were very low, indicating that agriculture had almost ceased.

The driest conditions in the Jiroft Valley, some 3,200 years ago, coincided with the collapse of the Late Bronze Age settlement in Konar Sandal.

Around 600 years later, the Persian Empires emerged, with two of the most powerful kingdoms in Eurasian history: the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires, which are almost synchronous with the two wettest periods in the sediment record.

“We can establish from our peat core that when the Achaemenid and Sasanian Empires were at their peak, agriculture was thriving and provisions were high,” says Joyanto Routh.

According to Joyanto Routh, the climate has always played an essential role in West Asia, something that is not always taken into the equation.

“Archaeologists suggest that these empires fell due to weak succession, pestilence, and political and military expansion. They generally overlook climate as a driving factor behind these changes. We don’t deny that the arguments stated by archeologists are important. However, you have to consider that suddenly, an agricultural community could no longer grow cereals because the monsoon pattern had shifted – there was an acute scarcity of water. This had cascading effects that led to the decentralization of power and eventually the demise or abandonment of many settlements in the region,” says Joyanto Routh.

Although cautious about linking the success of these empires to fluctuations in climate, the researchers argue that these correlations highlight the importance of combining detailed evidence of climate change with archaeological and historical contexts to be able to explore the interplay between various factors that may have impacted earlier civilizations.

The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council. The researchers included scholars from Linköping University (Sweden), the Research Institute for Earth Sciences (Iran), Marseilles Univ (France), the University of Tehran (Iran), and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology (Germany).

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He made the remarks at the meeting on “improving energy consumption in the healthcare sector in response to climate change” which was held at the Ministry of Health on Tuesday and attended by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The government of Iran, in cooperation with us and UNIDO, is carrying out a joint project about the results of weather and climate change in the field of health, which fortunately has made good progress so far, Hussain further stated.

Iran has adhered to its global commitment to reduce its carbon footprint in the medium and long term.Stating that this project is being piloted in Golestan and Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad provinces, he said that a workshop on the same topic was held in Golestan province not long ago, showing the effective efforts.

The Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and the Director of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in their latest joint announcement regarding climate change, emphasized giving serious attention to issues such as air pollution and water contamination as consequences of climate change, he explained.

Iran has conducted quality studies in the field of environmental health and work based on the effects of the environment on health, which is considered one of the most reliable studies in the world in this field, he also highlighted, referring to the lack of such projects in other countries.

Attention to the social components affecting health in all sectors will help to take efficient steps toward tackling climate change. Fortunately, Iran has adhered to its global commitment to reduce its carbon footprint in the medium and long term, he also said.

Pointing to the complications of Iran’s international relations due to sanctions, he noted that despite such problems, Iran has shown its commitment to carry out a joint project with the WHO and UNIDO, and this is the best service that can be provided in line with the health development.

 Climate change and health hazards

According to a report by WHO, Iran is amongst the most vulnerable countries to climate change due to its geographic, economic, and climatic characteristics. For instance, a large area of the country is susceptible to floods, while changing trends in precipitation have also led to droughts and forest fires.

Climate change increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events including drought and floods. Rising sea levels can lead to storm surges, coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion of groundwater aquifers, and ecosystem disruption. These events can lead to population displacement and affect water and sanitation infrastructure and services, contaminating water with fecal bacteria (e.g. E. coli, salmonella) from runoff or sewer overflow. Increasing temperatures and precipitation can also lead to water contaminated with Vibrio bacteria or algae blooms.

Water resources are expected to be less reliable in the future in Iran, with an observed 50 percent decrease in surface runoff (and consequential reductions in water availability) and flood occurrence potentially increasing by around 52 percent.

Climate change will worsen such trends; by 2030, there is a projected further 25 percent decrease in surface water runoff in Iran.

Ambient air pollution can have direct and sometimes severe consequences for health. Fine particles, which penetrate deep into the respiratory tract, subsequently increase mortality from respiratory infections, lung cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Sand and dust storms have severe impacts on human health, by increasing particulate matter and carrying harmful substances and pathogens, all of which contribute to air pollution and associated respiratory problems.

Furthermore, sand and dust storms increase desertification, drought, and soil salinity, as well as decrease water resources. This has severe implications for people’s livelihoods as well as their health, with agricultural land being particularly badly affected. There has been an observed increase in the frequency and severity of sand and dust storms globally. This is expected to worsen with climate change and be further exacerbated by drought, land degradation, and unsustainable land and water management.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) –Climate change refers to long-term changes in temperature and weather patterns that may be natural but since the middle of the 18th century, the trends have changed.

Human activities mainly due to burning fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and gas) have increased the gases.

The gases trap and the heating process develops, which is named as “greenhouse effect”. Such an effect is the cause of climate change which has had extensive effects on the environment.

The ice sheets in polar areas and natural lakes are shrinking, the rivers and lakes are disintegrating faster, the geographical ranges of plants and animals are changing and the trees bloom earlier.

Scientists have predicted the consequences for the long term, that would come later due to global climate change, which is happening now, such as the loss of lakes, increasing the water level in the oceans, and longer and more intense heat waves.

Generally, a wide range of published evidence shows that the net cost of damages caused by climate change is significant and will increase over time.

The sea level has increased from 1.7 mm per year in most years of the 20th century to 3.2 mm per year since 1993. The average thickness of the 30 well-studied natural lakes has decreased by more than 18 meters since 1980.

The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic at the end of summer has shrunk by about 40% since 1979. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by about 25% from 1958 to 2020 and by about 40% after the industrial revolution.

The snow melts earlier than the long-term average. Flooding is now an increasing risk because our climate is changing. In comparison with the beginning of the 20th century, heavy and frequent rainstorms occur abnormally in regions like Iran, especially at unexpected times and frequency (like March 2019 and July 2022).

The drought is getting worse. Humans use more water, especially for agriculture. Just like when the weather is hot, we sweat more, and higher air temperature causes us to lose more water, which means that the farmers should consume more water.

Both highlight the need for more water in places where water reserves are decreasing.

Snow is an important source of fresh water for many people. As the snow melts, fresh water becomes available for use, especially in areas like Iran where there is not much rainfall during the warmer months.

But as it gets warmer, it generally snows less and snow begins to melt earlier in the year, meaning snow may not be anymore a reliable source of water supplies.

Some changes (such as droughts, fires, and heavy rainfall) are occurring faster than scientists had previously estimated. UN Panel on Climate change (IPCC) – The United Nations body that was established for the scientific assessment of climate change on an inter-governmental scale- has determined that modern humans have never seen the changes observed in our world’s climate before, and some of these changes will be nonrefundable for thousands of years.

Global warming

Scientists are very confident that the Earth’s temperature will continue to rise for several decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activity.

The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was published in 2021, showed that the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere before the industrial revolution (since 1750) has increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius.

It is expected that the average global temperature in the next few decades will reach 2 (in some estimates 3) degrees of Celsius. This change will affect all regions of the Earth.

The concept of average temperature for the entire globe may seem strange. However, at this moment, the highest and lowest temperature on earth is probably more than 55 degrees Celsius.

They are far apart. Temperatures are getting worse from night to day. The times are different during the seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. This means that some parts of the Earth are quite cold while other parts are quite hot.

However, the concept of global average temperature measurement over time to identify and track changes in budgeting Earth’s energy – how much sunlight is absorbed by the earth minus the amount that radiates into space as heat – is a useful concept.

Analyzing the surface temperature data of the similar ascending trend. The Earth’s surface temperature in each year from 1900 to 2020 in comparison with the average of 1981-2020 has an increasing trend.

According to the May 2021 climate report, every month of 2021 was warmer than the average. The coldest month was February, which was 0.65 degrees Celsius warmer than the average.

The temperature for the rest of the year was higher more than 0.8 degrees Celsius.

The Year 2021 with a temperature of 0.84 degrees Celsius higher than the average of the 20th century, was the sixth hottest consecutive year recorded on the planet.

The years 2013-2021 are all among the ten warmest years on record. The year 2021 was also the 45th consecutive year (since 1977) with global temperature, at least nominally, higher than the average of the 20th century.

Since 1880, the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere rise has been 0.08 degrees Celsius. The average increase since 1981 has been 0.18 degrees Celsius, more than twice this rate.

The rate of global warming is not equal to the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that will be released in the coming decades. It depends on the emission in the atmosphere.

Today, our activities – burning fossil fuels and destroying forests — release about 11 billion metric tons of carbon (equivalent to just over 40 billion square meters) each year. It adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere (one metric ton of carbon dioxide fills a sphere with a diameter of about 10 meters).

Since carbon is too much to remove in natural processes, atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing every year.

What is the difference between climate change and global warming?

The severity of the effects of climate change depends on the direction of future human activities. The release of more greenhouse gases will lead to extreme weather events and widespread destructive effects throughout the planet.

However, these future effects depend on the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit. Therefore, if we can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, we may prevent some of the worst effects.

We think about climate change caused by human activity as something that will happen in the future, but this issue is a continuous process.

Today, ecosystems and societies around the world are affected by climate change.

Climate change refers to something more than an increase in temperature and including sea level rise, changes in patterns, intensity, and recurrence of drought, water, energy, transportation, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health.

The effects of climate change on different parts of society are related. Drought can harm food production and human health. The effects of climate change are felt in all aspects of the world in which we live.

However, the effects of climate change are uneven across countries and the world— even within a single community, the effects of climate change can vary between neighborhoods or individuals.

Long-term socio-economic inequalities can make disadvantaged groups, who often have the most exposure to risks and the least resources to respond, more vulnerable.

Iran and climate change

In the coming decades, Iran will face an increase of at least 2.6 degrees Celsius in the average temperature and a 35% decrease in rainfall.

Iran is the first country responsible for climate change in West Asia and the seventh country in the world by emitting a total of 616,741 million tons of CO2.

Iran’s high-level share in greenhouse gas emissions is due to significant production and consumption of oil, and gas and rapid urbanization.

Abnormality reduction in rainfall data and increase in rainfall data, upward radiation of long waves makes the effects of global warming and climate change intensify.

Iran submitted the 1st and 2nd national reports in 2003 and 2011, respectively, to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In 2017, the third national report is submitted to the UNFCCC. Uncoordinated inter-departmental collaboration, insufficient collection of data and information as well as international sanctions prevent the implementation of Iran in the Climate change adaptation program.

The future and climate change

Forecasting the future under the effect of climate change is inevitable. Many of the problems and solutions are now known to us, and ongoing research continues to provide new ones.

Experts believe that there is still time to prevent the most negative consequences by limiting the heat.

Reducing the emission of greenhouse gases as soon as possible requires investment in technology and new constructions that cause employment growth with environmental considerations.

In addition, such progress would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the harmful effects on human health, and save countless lives and billions of dollars in associated costs.

Changes in weather patterns can endanger life. Heat is one of the deadliest atmospheric phenomena. As the temperature of the atmosphere increases, storms become stronger and more humid, which can cause direct deaths and injuries.

Dry conditions lead to more forest fires, which pose greater health risks. The Indian Ocean monsoon phenomenon, which was mainly limited to the coastal areas, now affects areas as far as northern India (Himalayas) and northern Iran (Alborz) and has caused loss of life, damage to food sources, and as a result, threatens the health of more people.

Climates are more at risk. But public health groups can work with local communities to help people understand and build resilience to the effects of change.

Climate change and the past

Mass extinctions are the main drivers of macroevolutionary change. They are in geological history and show the basic transitions in the history of the Earth.

The previous five major extinctions occurred around 450 million years ago (end of Ordovician), 350 million years ago (end of Devonian), 250 million years ago (end of Permian), 200 million years ago (end of Triassic), and 66 million years ago (end of Cretaceous and beginning of Paleogene) have occurred.

However, the effect of environmental disturbance and biological response, which occurs on time scales below a thousand years, is still to be understood.

End of the Permian mass extinction about 250 million years ago, there was a severe loss of marine and terrestrial organisms in such a way that about 80 % of the species disappeared.

These extinctions in the past 542 million years – from the beginning of the formation of the first living organisms at the end of the Precambrian and the beginning of the Cambrian – have been identified.

Proposed drivers of mass extinctions are known as the Meteorites collision, volcanoes, floods, the world’s lack of oxygen, and the high level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the high temperature of the world as a mechanism for the killing of organisms and extinction.

Although the geological records are full of all these occurrences, very few lead to mass extinctions. Studying the details of the time of past mass extinctions make it possible to determine the future trend of present-time climatic changes and possible subsequent extinctions (the sixth extinction).

The author is the head of the geology division, the Academy of Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered,

Mohaghegh, who is the senior coordinator at Asia and Pacific Centre for Development of Disaster Information Management of UNESCAP, told IRNA on Thursday.

The IPCC has reported that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land and has found that changes to the climate system at an unprecedented scale have occurred in every region across the globe.
The report assesses that global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. In particular, the report concludes that global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions are made in the coming decades.

In the near term (2021-2040), 1.5°C is more likely than not to be exceeded under every emissions scenario. For every additional 0.5°C of global warming, there are clear increases in the intensity and frequency of heatwaves, heavy precipitation (extreme daily precipitation events are projected to intensify by about 7% for each 1°C of global warming) as well as agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions.
With increasing CO2 emissions, carbon sinks are projected to be less effective at slowing the increase of atmospheric CO2, with the proportion of emissions taken up decreasing with increasing emissions, leaving a higher proportion of emitted CO2 in the atmosphere.

Iran has been suffering droughts for decades. It has been expedited over the last three decades.

The plateau of Iran is a chief victim of global warming which its main culprits have been pumping gas emissions into the atmosphere through their unclean technology.

According to the World Meteorological Organization’s multiannual forecast, in the next five years, Iran’s average rainfall will decline by 75 percent, and the temperature rises by 50-75 percent compared to the long-term average.

According to the national center for drought and crisis management, since the beginning of the current water year (September 23, 2020), precipitation has declined by 41 percent compared to the long-term average and 53 percent compared to the same period last year.

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The administration of US President Joe Biden came under fire as 40 leaders from dozens of countries and organizations attended an international summit on climate change via video conference on Thursday, pledging action and calling for unity to tackle the climate crisis.

The summit showcased America’s return to the fight against global warming after four years of international withdrawal from the issue under former President Donald Trump, who mocked the science of climate change and pulled the US out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accord.

Biden promised that America would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions “by half” from 2005 levels in this decade and said, “We have to take actions, all of us.”

The US president’s pledge to cut America’s fossil fuel emissions as much as 52 percent by 2030 was swiftly faulted by the world’s most famous young climate activist, Greta Thunberg, who lambasted world leaders for their inaction — particularly the US, which she singled out as the “biggest emitter in history.”

In testimony at a US congressional hearing, delivered at the same time as the Biden climate summit was under way, Thunberg hit out at world leaders and said their climate targets were “very insufficient.”

The Swedish teenager accused the world leaders of “giving up without even trying,” and said their climate goals were full of loopholes.

“Unlike you, my generation will not give up without a fight,” Thunberg said in her testimony. “How long do you honestly believe that people in power, like you, will continue to get away with it?”

Skeptical of “net zero” targets which she said would fail to reduce emissions fast enough, Thunberg said, “You may say that we are naive, and that is fine. But at least we are not so naive that we believe that anything will be solved by countries and companies making vague distant targets.”

Biden has pledged to transition the US economy towards clean energy and reduce emissions from coal, natural gas and oil. Biden brought the US back into the Paris climate accord in January after Trump said in 2017 he was pulling the country out.

The US is the world’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China. Russia is the fourth-largest emitter.

During the summit on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the significance of climate change, calling on the international community to translate the promises to concrete and immediate actions.

Guterres urged the world countries to build a global coalition for carbon neutrality, making a more ambitious plan to make a great shift in the following ten years, aligned with a 2050 net-zero pathway.

The UN chief also said the leaders of all countries need to work together to “overcome climate change, end our war on nature and build lives of dignity and prosperity for all.”

President Xi Jinping, for his part, reaffirmed China’s climate commitments to strictly limit its coal consumption and strive to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

President Vladimir Putin welcomed the climate targets and said, “Russia is genuinely interested in galvanizing international cooperation so as to look further for effective solutions to climate change as well as to all other vital challenges.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised his nation’s target for greenhouse gas reductions to 40 to 45 percent by 2030.

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