Climate change is the biggest challenge of our times

Climate change, brought on by human
 behaviour, is the "biggest challenge
 of our times".

Belgium -Brussels – One of the biggest challenge of our times is climate change. Clear scientific evidence and plenty of alarming tendencies indicate that it is accelerating beyond expectations: increasing acid level of the oceans and their carbon storage capacity radically reducing, soil carbon losses mostly driven by land use change, melting of the permafrost, decreasing carbon stock in forests and other ecosystems, inter alia, resulting in the release of stored carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, aggravating climate change.

Unfortunately, at present no climate models can handle the complexity and adequately simulate the interactions and internalise all relevant processes. With this I am not at all questioning the warnings from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other scientific bodies. On the contrary, in light of the most recent developments, if scientists have made any mistake, it was exactly the use of too conservative assumptions and toning down the climate alarm, without properly calling for action. In fact, the dimension of these changes is considerably bigger than we expected. Hence, there is a huge risk that we underestimate the pace of climate change and the consequences thereof.

Read the NewEurope story - “Climate change is the biggest challenge of our times.”