Climate Change: Causes, Risks, Consequences, and Problems of Adaptation and Regulation

Turning to the now popular topic of global climate change and warming, especially at high latitudes, the author, cochairman of the RAS Scientific Council on Earth Climate Problems, analyzes in detail the trends of observed temperature variations and their global and regional features. It is noted that the increase in the global surface air temperature is accompanied by a rapid increase in the number of natural disasters, primarily due to hydrological and meteorological anomalies. It is argued that climatic anomalies of recent years indicate not only an increase in the risk of extreme regional events but also new processes and phenomena that characterize a certain critical level of climate change. In the opinion of the author, based on the results of the analysis of the current climate changes using model estimates and with account for natural and anthropogenic factors, owing to the rapid warming of recent decades, the Earth’s climate system has reached a regime comparable to that of the Holocene optimum. This article is based on materials of a report presented by the author at the meeting of the RAS Presidium on October 13, 2020.