A concerning text I received last evening from my gardener friend:

[c-rational]

Last edited Sat Dec 21, 2019, 06:28 PM - Edit history (2)

Found this on Twitter: Posted by a teacher in Paris named Ben See.
Source web site is ecological-emergency.org


1. Global crop failures hit at 1.5- 2°C.
2. Billions die at 3°C.
3. Most humans dead at 4°C.
4. Earth uninhabitable at 6°C.
5. We're heading for 1.5°C by 2025.
6. We're heading for 2°C by 2035.
7. We're heading for 4- 6°C by 2075.

And this morning in the Washington Post an article on whether the tipping point has been reached in the Amazon.

We humans may be an 'intelligent' species but we as a whole are a stupid lot at times. Where is our Leadership?

[magicarpet]

1. Depositing their ill begotten gains in their off shore secret bank accounts.

[Loki Liesmith]

2. These numbers are silly

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Say more?

[USALiberal]

35. Thanks for your detailed response! nt

[flyingfysh]

4. Do you have a better source?

"Twitter" as a source is awfully vague. Is there a link to a scientific paper?

[c-rational]

9. Will check.

[c-rational]

30. Added source and web site.

[TwilightZone]

5. Eh, no.

The forecasts for temp increases may be correct, but the conclusions seem pretty unlikely.

For example, there was a lot of life on earth 50 million years ago when the average temp was +14C vs. modern averages. Some of that life is still around in various forms today and has persisted through significant swings in temperature. Life is pretty resilient as a whole.

Temp data: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#Overall_view

[erronis]

16. Thanks for a bit of fact-checking here. The Earth will survive quite nicely, thank you but

humankind may need to go through a die-off cycle and come back - hopefully improved.

A cycle like that may be 10 to 100 million years. The best way to help the next go-round survive is to leave permanent examples of our stupidities. Not sure how to do that - perhaps space debris?

[wryter2000]

29. The planet will survive no matter what

The question is what will survive on it

[Disaffected]

23. Hopefully but,

the big difference here is that the expected temperature increases are occurring over a much briefer time interval (decades instead of thousands or millions of years). Gradual temperature increases/decreases give species a much better chance of successfully adapting (evolving) to the changes. This won't happen with what is happening now and mass extinctions (and maybe including humans) are pretty much inevitable.

Getting old sucks but sometimes I'm glad about it.....

[bahrbearian]

6. K&R

[safeinOhio]

7. It was almost 40 years ago,

I was listening to Allan Watts on radio. He was comparing humans to yeast.
If you introduce yeast to a sweet environment like wine or other juice with a little added sugar, the yeast will do 3 things. One eat, two poop and three reproduce. This is all good and fine until the liquid reaches about 7 or 8% alcohol. They take in the sugar and then poop out the alcohol. At that point all of the yeast die.

Kind of like what's going on now.

[roamer65]

13. Humans are like viruses.

Evolutionary similarities there are.

[keithbvadu2]

17. Matrix virus scene

[brush]

8. They're worried about corps making profits even if their business model...

hurts the environment.

[FirstLight]

10. It's terrifying, and a grim reality

I seriously don't know how my kids will survive in this world ...the next 20 years are going to get narly really fast

[roamer65]

12. In honesty, most won't survive.

These projection exclude the major wars that will be in play as well.

[FirstLight]

31. Thur...so very horrific...

I wish I had a time machine... One of the first things I would do is go back and replace the fossil-fuel industry with HEMP

...and maybe take out all the rich MFers who sold our collective souls to make OIL such a huge industry...

[roamer65]

32. Population growth has been definitely on the back of the oil boom.

When we either run out, or we put enough of that carbon back into the atmosphere the human race will be in for the roughest ride in our history.

[roamer65]

11. Glad I'm in my mid 50's.

[calimary]

14. Mid-60s here. I hope I'm gone before then.

Otherwise it would sentence me to a death of a broken heart.

Even so, while we still can, we should keep trying to do what we can.

[roamer65]

15. I see what's happening, calimary. It IS sad.

One simple example of it. I watch garbage day in my area. Whereas, I put mine out about once a month, everyone else cans are brimming full just about every week. That represents carbon footprint. The handwriting is on the wall.

[erronis]

19. I've had a good life. But my kids are in the middle of theirs and their children will bear the brunt

I can't feel good about just leaping off this mortal coil knowing what I'm leaving.

[roamer65]

20. I have had no children...at least that I know of...lol.

I am glad of it at this point.

[SunSeeker]

18. I fear my 16 year old son will not die of old age.

[PatrickforO]

21. Our leadership has been seduced by the lust for wealth and power.

This capitalist system we have now, complete with its doctrine of the primacy of the shareholder, is the root cause of our blindness as a species.

Until we get over greed and selfishness, we will be in peril.

[roamer65]

22. Australia and Southern Africa will be the leading edge of the change.

2.5 million miles closer to the Sun during its summer, it will be the harbinger of what’s to come for the Northern Hemisphere.

What will save some people in the southern half of South America are the Andes. They will give reprieve to some.

[CanonRay]

24. "Where is our leadership?"

Depositing their oil company checks.

[tecelote]

25. It's not God that I fear...

It's Mother Nature.

[wendyb-NC]

27. Yup.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. World's on fire; we're running around with our hair on fire.

What else would you expect of our species? 😞

[Ilsa]

33. There is a lot of fake information posted on social media to draw

in followers. Then they start turning the screws to play pro-trump mind games. It's putin's strategy. I don't know if the Parisian teacher is real, but I won't believe it unless a source is cited.

[appalachiablue]

34. *POST THIS IN THE E/E, ENVIRON. & ENERGY GROUP, SEE IF HATRACK OR

OTHERS CAN VERIFY THE INFO.

[c-rational]

36. I took a look at the website and it appears reputable, however I will take your advice.. Thanks.