Worried About Earth’s Future? Well, The Outlook Is Worse Than Even Scientists Can Grasp [for the record: see comment]

The Conversation ^ | The Conversation

[daniel1212]

...just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood.

The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world...Our paper was authored by 17 leading scientists...

While the problems are too numerous to cover in full here, they include:

• a halving of vegetation biomass since the agricultural revolution around 11,000 years ago...

• about 1,300 documented species extinctions over the past 500 years, with many more unrecorded...

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Read more: What is a 'mass extinction' and are we in one now?

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• about one million plant and animal species globally threatened with extinction.

• 85% of the global wetland area lost in 300 years, and more than 65% of the oceans compromised to some extent by humans

• a halving of live coral cover on reefs in less than 200 years and a decrease in seagrass extent by 10% per decade over the last century.

  The human population has reached 7.8 billion – double what it was in 1970 – and is set to reach about 10 billion by 2050. More people equals more food insecurity, soil degradation, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss.

  High population densities make pandemics more likely. They also drive overcrowding, unemployment, housing shortages and deteriorating infrastructure, and can spark conflicts leading to insurrections, terrorism, and war.

Essentially, humans have created an ecological Ponzi scheme. Consumption, as a percentage of Earth’s capacity to regenerate itself, has grown from 73% in 1960 to more than 170% today.

High-consuming countries like Australia, Canada and the US use multiple units of fossil-fuel energy to produce one energy unit of food. Energy consumption will therefore increase in the near future, especially as the global middle class grows.

Then there’s climate change. Humanity has already exceeded global warming of 1°C this century, and will almost assuredly exceed 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052. Even if all nations party to the Paris Agreement ratify their commitments, warming would still reach between 2.6°C and 3.1°C by 2100.

Our paper found global policymaking falls far short of addressing these existential threats. Securing Earth’s future requires prudent, long-term decisions. However this is impeded by short-term interests, and an economic system that concentrates wealth among a few individuals.

Right-wing populist leaders with anti-environment agendas are on the rise, and in many countries, environmental protest groups have been labelled “terrorists”. Environmentalism has become weaponised as a political ideology, rather than properly viewed as a universal mode of self-preservation...

Fundamental change is required to avoid this ghastly future. Specifically, we and many others suggest:

• abolishing the goal of perpetual economic growth

• revealing the true cost of products and activities by forcing those who damage the environment to pay for its restoration, such as through carbon pricing

• rapidly eliminating fossil fuels

• regulating markets by curtailing monopolisation and limiting undue corporate influence on policy

• reigning in corporate lobbying of political representatives

• educating and empowering women across the globe, including giving them control over family planning.

Read more: Mass extinctions and climate change: why the speed of rising greenhouse gases matters

[daniel1212]

The bad news is that China is winning the war they started with that virus of theirs. Kind of sad with automation so close to the point where space commerce can really become profitable.

It seems to have known that world dominance required the negation of Americas industrial power (and moral standards). And with the help of US pols, the former was ceded to the Chicoms as we lost our moral fortitude.

See How ridiculous was American production in World War 2? [images at link] Only China is in the position to fulfill such today.

[daniel1212]

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/

The leftist propagandists will continue the flogging until morale improves!

Thanks. That is a saver. However it needs to be updated.

[daniel1212]

https://environmentalprogress.org/big-news/2020/6/29/on-behalf-of-environmentalists-i-apologize-for-the-climate-scare

Now that is refreshing. Posted on FR:

On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare
Environmental Progress ^ | 6-29-2020 | Michael Shellenberger

Humans are not causing a “sixth mass extinction”

• The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”

• Climate change is not making natural disasters worse

• Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003

• The amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska

• The build-up of wood fuel and more houses near forests, not climate change, explain why there are more, and more dangerous, fires in Australia and California

• Carbon emissions are declining in most rich nations and have been declining in Britain, Germany, and France since the mid-1970s

• Adapting to life below sea level made the Netherlands rich not poor

• We produce 25% more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to rise as the world gets hotter

• Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change

• Wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels

• Preventing future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture

  And

  The Curious Case of Environmentalist Mike Shellenberger
  Townhall.com ^ | September 25, 2020 | Gabriella Hoffman >’

  Now why is it that we do not see this reported by the MSM? I read that Forbes Cancels Environmentalist Who Wrote ‘I Apologize for the Climate Scare’