The Earth is in a death spiral. It will take radical action to save us (George Monbiot)

[arenean]

It was a moment of the kind that changes lives. At a press conference held by climate activists Extinction Rebellion last week, two of us journalists pressed the organisers on whether their aims were realistic. They have called, for example, for UK carbon emissions to be reduced to net zero by 2025. Wouldn’t it be better, we asked, to pursue some intermediate aims?

A young woman called Lizia Woolf stepped forward. She hadn’t spoken before, but the passion, grief and fury of her response was utterly compelling. “What is it that you are asking me as a 20-year-old to face and to accept about my future and my life? … This is an emergency. We are facing extinction. When you ask questions like that, what is it you want me to feel?” We had no answer.

Softer aims might be politically realistic, but they are physically unrealistic. Only shifts commensurate with the scale of our existential crises have any prospect of averting them. Hopeless realism, tinkering at the edges of the problem, got us into this mess. It will not get us out.

Public figures talk and act as if environmental change will be linear and gradual. But the Earth’s systems are highly complex, and complex systems do not respond to pressure in linear ways. When these systems interact (because the world’s atmosphere, oceans, land surface and lifeforms do not sit placidly within the boxes that make study more convenient), their reactions to change become highly unpredictable. Small perturbations can ramify wildly. Tipping points are likely to remain invisible until we have passed them. We could see changes of state so abrupt and profound that no continuity can be safely assumed.

Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/14/earth-death-spiral-radical-action-climate-breakdown

[jon k]

1. Death Spiral? Earth? No.

Last edited Wed Nov 14, 2018, 08:36 AM - Edit history (3)

Us! The sad part is we'll take a lot of other species with us. But life and Earth will still be here, long after OUR arrogant asses are gone!

PS: I don't know of any climate scientist who's talking about Earth turning Venusian!

[Thekaspervote]

2. Yup! Mother will be fine.

[AZ8theist]

3. this...

He makes this point around the 2:30 mark..

[Cetacea]

5. lol

He was so friggin wrong on this. And I'm a fan. Too bad people mocked Jimmy Carter.

[Cetacea]

6. Venus effect is very possible

I doubt there will be any life left on Earth when all of the feedback loops set in. Our greatest legacy may be that we wiped out all life that came before us. Personally, I'm at least going to try to help out a few animals and other life forms before I'm gone.

[femmedem]

4. On Twitter, he writes how our response can lead to greater happiness.

Link to tweet

Sorry I can't cut and paste the text; it's a photo of text too long to otherwise post on twitter.

[Martin Eden]

7. Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury

The task is to find an economic model that doesn't depend on consumerism for employment and the political wherewithal to make it happen.

[femmedem]

9. Yes. I try to support local businesses so my local friends have jobs.

And so that my local downtown doesn't die. Once in a while I buy stuff I don't need or even want, because I am friends with the shop owner or employee.

"Buy nothing" makes environmental sense--the most important sense of all--but you're right. We do need a new economic model.

[watoos]

11. When Walmart came to town

I never shopped there. I always shopped local. I admit I have been in Walmart 3 times because sure enough it shut down all of the smaller businesses and I couldn't find the things I wanted.

I don't know if it is true but I read where we would have less unemployment had Walmart never existed.

When I buy my higher priced items I still buy local and always buy made in America.

[davekriss]

15. "Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury"

That *must* be the battle cry (amongst other cries) for every progressive starting today!!!

[beachbum bob]

8. the earth is fine, hysteria on climate change doesn't stop it. Its mankind that is in trouble

[Cetacea]

10. Hysteria? Interesting eom

[femmedem]

12. The earth is inhabited by billions of sentient beings who will suffer,

who are already suffering, who are already dying because of climate change. The vast majority of them are not human and did nothing to cause their fate.

I don't know how to reconcile the phrase "hysteria on climate change" with that reality.

[beachbum bob]

13. earth has had life destroyed before many times and it will have again until the planet perishes

[dugog55]

14. From the movie "Tomorrowland" Gov. Nix speech

Most of this rings very true right now.

[SunSeeker]

16. When you drive along the coast here in California you see these giant homes sitting on the beach.

And I never see anybody lounging on their expansive balconies. Such a waste.