There’s war in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and for the first time since World War II, world peace is hanging on a thread. Human rights are taken away from hundreds of millions of people, with the latest loss coming from the Land of Liberty. The economy is collapsing, threatening to take us to the inflation levels of the 1920s.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
What’s cooking behind the scenes will challenge world peace, human rights, and the economy in a way unimaginable to any of us today. At worst, we’re facing a total collapse of the ecosystem — an irreversible series of events that makes this planet inhabitable for life as we know it, including us humans.
I’m talking about climate change, biodiversity loss, and crossing planetary boundaries. I’m not sure everybody understands the gravity of the situation.
No control over climate change
It’s time to face it: none of the current solutions have put the world on the right track to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. We should be heading towards a 45% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. In reality, our emissions grow every year. Eight years to go, and we haven’t even been able to plateau, let alone bend the curve. The latest IPCC report admits that with the current plans, “it is likely that warming will exceed 1.5°C and also make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to below 2°C”.
Our last chance to bend the rising greenhouse gas emissions curve is 2025, after which we’re heading towards (at least) 3.2-degree warming by 2100. That’s two and a half years. Besides ambitious goals and pledges, we don’t really have a clear scalable action plan for getting there.
The worst projected scenario predicts 4.5-degree global warming by 2050. If we take this route, we will see 300 million people struggling with floods and displacements from their homes. A hundred thousand people will die due to heat-related conditions every year. Droughts, pandemics, and extreme weather conditions will make this planet nearly uninhabitable for humans.
Read the full article from Merit Valdsalu, the co-founder of Single.Earth on Medium.
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