Extended excerpts below from a stark warning issued by a team of international scientists about the intensifying climate crisis...
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You don't have to look far to see what climate change is doing to the planet. The word "unprecedented" is everywhere this year.

We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam.

Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented drought in Brazil has dried out enormous rivers and left swathes of empty river beds. At least 1,300 pilgrims died during this year's Hajj in Mecca as temperatures passed 50°C.

Unfortunately, we are headed for far worse.

Our new report, the 2024 State of the Climate, shows a continued rise in fossil fuel emissions, which remain at an all-time high. Despite years of warnings from scientists, fossil fuel consumption has actually increased, pushing the planet toward dangerous levels of warming. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases – particularly methane and carbon dioxide – are still rising.

Last September, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere hit 418 parts per million. This September, they crossed 422 ppm. Methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, has been increasing at an alarming rate despite global pledges to tackle it.

Compounding the problem is the recent decline in atmospheric aerosols from efforts to cut pollution. These small particles suspended in the air come from both natural and human processes, and have helped cool the planet.

Without this cooling effect, the pace of global warming may accelerate. We don't know for sure because aerosol properties are not yet measured well enough.

Other environmental issues are now feeding into climate change. Deforestation in critical areas such as the Amazon is reducing the planet's capacity to absorb carbon naturally, driving additional warming. This creates a feedback loop, where warming causes trees to die which in turn amplifies global temperatures.

Loss of sea ice is another. As sea ice melts or fails to form, dark seawater is exposed. Ice reflects sunlight but seawater absorbs it. Scaled up, this changes the Earth's albedo (how reflective the surface is) and accelerates warming further.

Without drastic changes, the world is on track for approximately 2.7°C of warming this century. To avoid catastrophic tipping points, nations must strengthen their climate pledges, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Immediate, transformative policy changes are now necessary if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Climate change is already here. But it could get much, much worse. By slashing emissions, boosting natural climate solutions and working towards climate justice, the global community can still fend off the worst version of our future.
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The above is taken from an article written by two scientists who helped produce the 2024 State of the Climate report. In my next post, I'll highlight some of the important content from the report itself. 🧵 1/3

READ THE ARTICLE -- https://www.sciencealert.com/humanity-faces-a-brutal-future-as-scientists-warn-of-2-7c-warming

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

I grieve for all that we’ve lost due to capitalist industry and commerce, and for so much more that we still have to lose… 😢
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There have been five mass extinctions of life in Earth’s history, caused by cataclysms such as volcanic eruptions or meteorite impact. Scientists warn that human activity is now causing species to go extinct at a *thousand* times the normal background rate. Leading experts in the field predict that half of the world’s estimated eight million species will be extinct or at the brink of extinction by the end of this century unless humanity changes its ways.

Why don’t we react in unbridled outrage to the devastation of the natural world taking place before our eyes? A major reason is that we don’t realize what we’ve lost. Whatever conditions people grow up with are the ones they generally consider normal. This is a tribute to the amazing plasticity of the human mind, but it means that we tend to take for granted things that should never be accepted.

The somber truth is that the vast bulk of nature’s staggering abundance has already disappeared. We live in a world characterized primarily by the relative silence and emptiness of its natural spaces. It’s only when we read accounts of wildlife from centuries ago that we realize how much is gone.

The next time you go for a hike in nature, and marvel at its beauty, take a moment to realize that you are looking at a pale, shrunken wraith of what it once was. An accumulation of studies around the world measuring the declines of species and ecosystems indicates that overall we’ve lost around 90% of nature’s profusion.

We live in a ten percent world.
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Grief - Rage - Resignation - Defiance ... how do you respond to all this?

FULL ESSAY -- https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-07-06/the-ideology-of-human-supremacy/

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

I'm 70 years old. Many of my followers here are seniors, like me, or are at least middle-aged. Most of us are angry and probably grief-stricken about what capitalist industry is doing to the biosphere.

But what must it feel like to be a young person in your teens or in your twenties and be looking toward a future of near-certain disaster, the collapse of society, the destruction of everything you hold dear? I can't imagine the pain.

It would be understandable if they reacted by simply giving up. Or perhaps by lashing out in anger. But some of them, showing incredible courage and determination, have formed movements to change what they can and to save at least a vestige of the civilization they are inheriting.

I stand in awe of these selfless, dedicated young people.

#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateJustice

Want to hear some crazy radical ideas?

Check this out...
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❝ Capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil. Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital, the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights. ❞
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That's from 1949 (!) and it was written by...... wait for it...... Albert Einstein.

LEARN MORE -- https://archive.ph/jvlFD

ALTERNATE LINK -- https://glenhendrix50.medium.com/einstein-in-1949-predicted-how-and-why-society-would-go-sideways-d9ab65ed4882

#Politics #Capitalism

Not what we want to hear...
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"Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return, says new study"

The Greenland Ice Sheet covers 1.7 million square kilometers in the Arctic. If it melts entirely, global sea level would rise about 7 meters (23 feet), but scientists aren't sure how quickly the ice sheet could melt.

Based in part on carbon emissions, a new study using simulations identified two tipping points for the Greenland Ice Sheet: releasing 1000 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere will cause the southern portion of the ice sheet to melt; about 2500 gigatons of carbon means permanent loss of nearly the entire ice sheet.

Having emitted about 500 gigatons of carbon, we're about halfway to the first tipping point.

"The first tipping point is not far from today's climate conditions, so we're in danger of crossing it," said Dennis Höning, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research who led the study. "Once we start sliding, we will fall off this cliff and cannot climb back up."

The study was published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2023-03-greenland-ice-sheet.html

#Emissions #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateAction #ClimateEmergency