Another selection from a recent article at the Guardian with statements from various scientists about the alarming and accelerating pace of the climate crisis...
Bill Hare, a physicist and climate scientist, also chief executive of Climate Analytics, says:
We knew by the mid-1990s that lurking in the tails of our climate model projections were monsters: monstrous heatwaves, catastrophic extreme rainfall and floods, subcontinental-scale wildfires, rapid ice sheet collapse raising sea level metres within a century.
But as today’s monstrous, deadly heat waves overtake large parts of Asia, Europe, and North America with temperatures the likes of which we have never experienced, we find that even 1.2C of global warming isn’t safe.
Driving all this is the fossil fuel industry. Enabling it are political leaders unwilling to bring this industry under control, and who promote policies such as offsetting that simply enable this industry to continue.
@breadandcircuses the last paragraph sums up our current political and economic quagmire. In democracies, due to needing to get a majority of votes to govern, political parties do not 'lead' change, they follow popular interest. Currently, popular interest is driven by marketing in a system reliant on growth.
I see no other pathway out of our current trajectory than a framework respecting #PlanetaryBoundaries, which requires #PostGrowth approaches.
The Anthropocene is a colonial construct and very misleading. Referring to the human species as the influencer of a new geologic epoch beginning less than 100 yrs ago ignores 200,000 to 2,000,000 yrs of humans living within #PlanetaryBoundaries.
@jasonhickel just published a really good piece on #degrowth and technology, which debunks some of "degrowth is against green tech". We have enough trouble facing down the fossil fuel industry, we shouldn't such false debates internally. #GreenGrowth#PlanetaryBoundaries
I was going to have some first-time visitors to the garden this afternoon. Postponed for poor air quality due to smoke from wildfires.
Weather reports now include smoke forecasts in addition to air quality.
We've increased (unequally, inequitably) atmospheric CO2 by 33% in my lifetime, 50% since pre-industrial. It continues to rise, faster now that ever before in my life.
Is anyone familiar with how the #planetaryboundaries Biosphere Integrity (#biodiversity) boundary was set? Its threshold is stated as "an annual rate of loss of biological diversity of < 10 extinctions per million species". This seems to me an incomplete metric.
Surely there need to be more added?
Ideas:
The diversity of remaining species across orders/families, to assess if ecosystems are functional.
During Johan Rockström's talk at #BeyondGrowth2023 I was tweeting furiously and trying to relay his (crystalline, factful) argument in real-time. In a nutshell: human civilization evolved under conditions of extraordinary #climate and planetary stability. As we leave it, all bets are off. It is imperative to keep within #planetaryboundaries.
But it's better to just listen to his killer 10 mins presentation. Highly recommended.
Can I get some follow recommendations? I’m acutely aware that of the people I follow who post about our planet’s systems, most of them are climate people. I’d love to follow more people posting at a #systems level. Y’know, the people who distill down expert knowledge into consumable packets for the rest of us. Think #hydrology/ #freshwater/ #oceans, #biodiversity, #ecology, #biology, #agriculture, #energy, #economics, #geology#planetaryBoundaries … these kind of topics. Boosts appreciated!
These two visual sensemaking graphics from the EU Parliament conference #BeyondGrowth2023 panel that I spoke at are awesome! The second graphic captures some of the points I had made quiet nicely.
Safe and just’ climate boundary has already been breached, says contested study
"Now, more than a decade after planetary boundaries were first proposed, the updated Earth-system boundaries framework explores how to keep the planet stable while minimising “significant harm” to humans and other species, using a “justice framework”.
The authors select five of the nine original planetary systems – climate, biosphere, water, nutrients and air pollution – and identify eight key, quantifiable indicators that can monitor these systems.
These indicators – including warming level, area of natural ecosystems and surface-water flow – were “carefully chosen” to be “implementable for stakeholders in cities, businesses, countries across the world”, Rockström told a press briefing.
For each indicator, the authors assess the conditions needed to avoid “significant harm” at both global and local scales, taking into account the following justice considerations:
Interspecies justice: prioritising other species and ecosystems in addition to humanity.
Intergenerational justice: considering how actions taken today will impact future generations.
Intragenerational justice: accounting for factors including race, class and gender, which “underpin inequality, vulnerability and the capacity to respond” to changes in planetary systems. [...]"
New study identifies safe and just boundaries for the Earth system. Safe boundaries ensure stable and resilient conditions on Earth, and just boundaries minimise human exposure to significant damage. Humanity has already crossed several of these boundaries
"Safe and just Earth system boundaries", published yesterday by @jrockstrom et al, provides an important summary for the state of things.
Looking at different #PlanetaryBoundaries or Earth System Boundaries #ESB, it shows where we are at - 7 of 8 ESBs already crossed, not good! It also discusses what "safe and just" means, and how it can be calculated. You can see a strong affinity with #Doughnut economics from the visualisation alone.
#ClimateDiary
Two additions to the important “Safe and Just Earth Systems” paper above ⬆️
First, this shorter summary/commentary piece, easier and quicker to digest than original research but with same stark message - 7 out of 8 #ESB crossed already #PlanetaryBoundaries
It was a pleasure to speak yesterday at #HITS in Heidelberg about the carbon footprint of astronomy. It’s time to collectively invent a new way of doing astronomical research that respects the boundaries of our planet #Climate#PlanetaryBoundaries https://youtu.be/BL3etSNisuE