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Mountain Mule
Mountain Mule's Journal
Mountain Mule's Journal
October 31, 2022
~snip~
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It's so depressing to read stories like this, but hopefully we can use this information as a springboard to action and not a reason for despair. It's up to us Democrats. Vote in the upcoming midterms and keep Republicans out of the Whitehouse in 2024!
World close to 'irreversible' climate breakdown, warn major studies
From The Guardian:
The climate crisis has reached a really bleak moment, one of the worlds leading climate scientists has said, after a slew of major reports laid bare how close the planet is to catastrophe.
Collective action is needed by the worlds nations more now than at any point since the second world war to avoid climate tipping points, Prof Johan Rockström said, but geopolitical tensions are at a high.
He said the world was coming very, very close to irreversible changes time is really running out very, very fast.
Emissions must fall by about half by 2030 to meet the internationally agreed target of 1.5C of heating but are still rising, the reports showed at a time when oil giants are making astronomical amounts of money.
On Thursday, Shell and TotalEnergies both doubled their quarterly profits to about $10bn. Oil and gas giants have enjoyed soaring profits as post-Covid demand jumps and after Russias invasion of Ukraine. The sector is expected to amass $4tn in 2022, strengthening calls for heavy windfall taxes to address the cost of living crisis and fund the clean energy transition.
~snip~
Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said: Its a really bleak moment, not only because of the reports showing that emissions are still rising, so were not delivering on either the Paris or Glasgow climate agreements, but we also have so much scientific evidence that we are very, very close to irreversible changes were coming closer to tipping points.
Research by Rockström and colleagues, published in September, found five dangerous climate tipping points may already have been passed due to the global heating caused by humanity to date, including the collapse of Greenlands ice cap, with another five possible with 1.5C of heating.
Furthermore, the world is unfortunately in a geopolitically unstable state, said Rockström. So when we need collective action at the global level, probably more than ever since the second world war, to keep the planet stable, we have an all-time low in terms of our ability to collectively act together.
Time is really running out very, very fast, he said. I must say, in my professional life as a climate scientist, this is a low point. The window for 1.5C is shutting as I speak, so its really tough.
Read MORE
It's so depressing to read stories like this, but hopefully we can use this information as a springboard to action and not a reason for despair. It's up to us Democrats. Vote in the upcoming midterms and keep Republicans out of the Whitehouse in 2024!
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: Colorado Springs
Home country: Colorado
Current location: the Four Corners
Member since: Thu Dec 1, 2016, 02:27 PM
Number of posts: 1,002