Urgent action needed to mitigate climate change, says Dia Mirza

Actor and producer Dia Mirza has reacted to the recent report of the United Nations-appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Twitter.

She tweeted, “Climate change is widespread, rapid, and intensifying. It is affecting every region, with many of the changes becoming irreversible, new IPCC report finds. No more excuses! We need urgent Climate Action now (sic).”

Released on 9 August, the report — which issues a loud and clear warning that by ignoring the climate crisis, humanity may have put itself on the path of irreversible destruction — was termed a 'code red for humanity' by United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

“In simple words, the earth’s climate is getting so hot that in about a decade, temperatures would be beyond the level of warming that world leaders thought they could prevent. What chilled me most was the reminder that we really have nowhere to run,” said Mirza.

Referring to the report, she added, “Climate change is human-caused and 'unequivocal', and how well we do in the future depends on what action we take today to cut carbon emissions.”

The report also mentioned that the world has already warmed over 1.1° C in the past century and if we don't do something now, we will cross the 1.5° C warming mark in the 2030s.

In recent times, several countries around the world have faced unprecedented weather conditions. While Brazil has witnessed snowfall for the first time in the last 60 years, the images of Greece fighting with the catastrophic forest fire is still haunting the world. According to Mirza, even these unusual occurrences are not pushing us enough to take a step towards reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

“Sea levels are already rising alarmingly, ice sheets are shrinking, permafrost is thawing, and extreme weather conditions are becoming increasingly frequent,” said the actress. 

“We are causing harm to the planet that the report calls 'irreversible for centuries to millennia'. The UN secretary-general said as well that the climate alarm bells are deafening, and this report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels before they destroy our planet," she added. 

Mirza believes that it is important to make an immediate collective effort to mitigate and forestall the worst impacts of climate change by adopting clean energy and reducing irresponsible human activities. “If we begin at least now, we could possibly still leave a healthy planet for our children to grow up in,” she said.