🧵 3/3

From the concluding paragraphs of the 2024 State of the Climate Report, in which a team of scientists warn that without system change, we are likely facing societal collapse...
________________________________

Despite six IPCC reports, 28 COP meetings, hundreds of other reports, and tens of thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only very minor headway on climate change, in part because of stiff resistance from those benefiting financially from the current fossil-fuel based system.

We are currently going in the wrong direction, and our increasing fossil fuel consumption and rising greenhouse gas emissions are driving us toward a climate catastrophe. We fear the danger of climate breakdown.

The evidence we observe is both alarming and undeniable, but it is this very shock that drives us to action. We recognize the profound urgency of addressing this global challenge, especially the horrific outlook for the world's poor.

In a world with finite resources, unlimited growth is a perilous illusion. We need bold, transformative change: drastically reducing overconsumption and waste, especially by the affluent, stabilizing and gradually reducing the human population through empowering education and rights for girls and women, reforming food production systems to support more plant-based eating, and adopting an ecological and post-growth economics framework that ensures social justice.

The surge in yearly climate disasters shows we are in a major crisis with worse to come if we continue with business as usual. Only through decisive action can we safeguard the natural world, avert profound human suffering, and ensure that future generations inherit the livable world they deserve. The future of humanity hangs in the balance.
________________________________

FULL REPORT -- academic.oup.com/bioscience/ad

What's most notable to me about the 2024 State of the Climate Report is that some of the more moderate climate scientists, such as Michael Mann, signed their names to it. This report goes well beyond what we usually get from the mainstream science establishment.

Although they insist they're not being either optimistic or pessimistic but simply honest, the whole thing feels a lot closer to the kind of 'doomism' that many have denounced in the past. Of course, they don't want anyone to give up yet, and neither do I. As they say, "the fact is that avoiding every tenth of a degree of warming is critically important."

But they're willing to state here that climate feedback loops and tipping points could amplify warming beyond human control. And they allude to findings that suggest the current rate of global warming could be accelerating, per James Hansen.

They're even calling for a post-growth economy, i.e. #degrowth.

Bottom line: These scientists are scared, as they should be. As we all should be.

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