TheCable

The complexities of climate change and its associated jargon can make it difficult to digest. TheCable’s climate quick facts will help to demystify these climate concepts through easy-to-understand and straight-to-the-point explanations.

Here are some to keep at the tip of your fingers:

• According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the equivalent of a garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute, threatening biodiversity and damaging marine ecosystems.

• As heatwaves blanket some parts of the world, several Japanese cities that broke heat records dating as far back as 1875 have issued heat alerts, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency.

• UNEP’s From Pollution to Solution report shows that some 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually.

• Greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics are expected to reach 6.5 gigatons by 2050, the United Nations says.

• A global increase of extreme fires even in areas previously unaffected is anticipated due to climate change and land-use change, a new report, Spreading like Wildfire: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires, by UNEP and GRID-Arendal, finds.