Planet at Risk of Heading Towards Apocalyptic, Irreversible 'Hothouse Earth' State

[Rhiannon12866]

We only have 10-20 years to fix this.

This summer people have been suffering and dying because of heat waves and wildfires in many parts of the world. The past three years were the warmest ever recorded, and 2018 is likely to follow suit. What we do in the next 10-20 years will determine whether our planet remains hospitable to human life or slides down an irreversible path to what scientists in a major new study call “Hothouse Earth” conditions.

Hothouse Earth is an apocalyptic nightmare where the global average temperatures is 4 to 5 degrees Celsius higher (with regions like the Arctic averaging 10 degrees C higher) than today, according to the study, “Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene,” published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sea levels would eventually be 10-60 meters higher as much of the world’s ice melts. In these conditions, large parts of the Earth would be uninhabitable.

Cutting carbon emissions to limit climate change to 2 degrees C, as proposed in the Paris climate agreement, won’t be enough to avoid a “Hothouse Earth,” said co-author Johan Rockström, executive director of Stockholm Resilience Centre. The reality is that global temperatures aren’t driven by human emissions of carbon alone, says Rockström—natural systems such as forests and oceans also play a major role.

If global warming reaches 2 degrees C it could trigger a feedback, or “tipping element,” in one or more of our natural systems and drive further warming, Rockström told Motherboard. To put that into perspective, the recent heat waves and wildfires are being linked to climate change that has raised the global average temperature 1 degree C.


Much more (Includes video): https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xbdnk/planet-at-risk-of-heading-towards-hothouse-earth?utm_campaign=sharebutton&utm_source=reddit.com

[2naSalit]

1. Not to mention

all those little species who make it possible for us to grow food are dying off too. Then there's the drought thing and floods. I wonder how many days of subzero temps will be recorded in unusual places this coming winter and then how warm it will be where it used to get into subzero temps for weeks at a time like Montana, Wyoming and Idaho?

[LisaM]

2. But Bush and Gore didn't have a dime's worth of difference.

Ugh.

[True Dough]

3. It's such an overwhelming issue

Good thing it's atop Don the Con's priority list, eh?

[Rhiannon12866]

4. It's unbelievable that the signs of crisis are happening all over the world

And while other countries are struggling to move forward, Trump is committed to rolling back the environmental protections that we fought to put in place.

[CousinIT]

5. WORST TIME for humanity to be dealing with climate change deniers & Trumps

WILL HUMANITY be wise enough to save itself from Trumps, alt-right conspiracy theorists, & greedy corprat money-mongers -- or are we DOOMED by our own snake-oil-buying, voting-for-idiots or not-voting-at-all stupidity?

Are the religious nuts right? Are some some sort of "End Times" coming (even if only man-made rather than the biblical "Gawd is a-comin" kind, human-caused because humans are too damned stupid to save themselves)?