Thread by @ClimateBen

RT this [THREAD] of articles if you'd like to ask Twitter's most popular UK political commentators - the vast majority of whom seldom or never mention the Ecological Emergency - for analysis of the politics of catastrophic #ClimateBreakdown, #MassExtinction & #EcologicalCollapse.

Dear @jonsnowC4 @peston @bbclaurak @bbcnickrobinson @afneil

'we could be looking at an epic extinction event, caused by ourselves, which could include exterminating our own species, or at least what we call “civilization,” in as little as nine years.'

counterpunch.org/2017/02/10/loo…

Hi @OwenJones84 & @paulmasonnews

'We are already facing mass extinction. There is no removing the heat we have introduced into the oceans, nor the 40bn tons of CO2 we pump into the atmosphere every single year. There may be no changing what is happening'

theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/…

@krishgm @EvanHD

“We’re surprised at the rate of change in the Earth system. So much is happening at the same time and at a faster speed than we would have thought 20 years ago. That’s a real concern. We’re heading ever faster towards the edge of a cliff"
theguardian.com/environment/20…

@campbellclaret @KayBurley @andrewrawnsley

'there is a very big risk that we will just end our civilisation. The human species will survive somehow but we will destroy almost everything we have built up over the last two thousand years...'

theecologist.org/2019/jan/03/it…

@mrjamesob @georgegalloway @faisalislam

'Catastrophic climate change is inevitable. Our technology and science will not save us. The future of humanity is now in peril. At best we can mitigate the crisis. We cannot avert it. We are fighting for our lives'
truthdig.com/articles/we-ca…

Hi @Harryslaststand @GuidoFawkes @jimwaterson @GeorgeMonbiot @George_Osborne @MaajidNawaz @carolecadwalla @wmarybeard @FraserNelson

'We have to make decisions now which will literally determine whether organized human life can survive in any decent form.'
truthout.org/video/noam-cho…

Hi @MarinaHyde @britainelects @MichaelLCrick @PennyRed @cathynewman @Kevin_Maguire

'self-reinforcing feedback loops could push the climate system into chaos before we have time to tame our energy system, and the other sources of climate pollution'

motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…

@hugorifkind 'given the levels of greenhouse gases already emitted & the current political climate, a growing number of researchers believe it’s now all but inevitable that the world won’t cut emissions fast enough to avoid 2˚C of warming, much less 1.5˚C'
technologyreview.com/the-download/6…

@mrmarksteel @BootstrapCook @pollytoynbee @DouglasKMurray @HadleyFreeman @montie @IsabelHardman @davidallengreen

'The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction'

theguardian.com/environment/20…

@paulwaugh @JuliaHB1 @adamboultonSKY @IanDunt @maitlis @IainDale @DAaronovitch

'scientists who revealed what caused the “greatest crisis in the history of life of Earth”, have called for immediate action to halt the further warming of the planet'

independent.co.uk/news/science/g…

Hello there @AndrewMarr9 @NickFerrariLBC @JohnRentoul @DPJHodges @tnewtondunn @AyoCaesar @BBCNormanS @SophyRidgeSky
@chunkymark @Scientists4EU

'society will collapse in less than three decades due to catastrophic food shortages if policies do not change'

independent.co.uk/environment/cl…

@ConversationUK

'it is a virtual certainty that we will inflict, thanks to climate change, the equivalent of 25 Holocausts on the world...25 Holocausts is our absolute best-case outcome

“We are locking in place a scale of suffering that has no precedent"
nymag.com/intelligencer/…

@IsabelOakeshott @helenlewis @ShippersUnbound @Freedland @JolyonMaugham @NickCohen4 @WillBlackWriter @SamCoatesTimes @PeterTatchell @georgeeaton @garyyounge @MrHarryCole

'The last time oceans got this A
Acidic this fast, 96% of marine life went extinct.'
motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/…

Hello @fleetstreetfox @ConHome @sunny_hundal @toadmeister @patrickwintour

“If the tropical forests go it will be yet another catastrophic failure of the whole Earth system,” he said, “that will feed back on human beings in an almost unimaginable way.”

washingtonpost.com/science/2018/1…

@ChrisMasonBBC @TheMediaTweets @38_degrees @suzanne_moore @JPonpolitics @BBCJLandale @TheCanaryUK @LSEpoliticsblog @AndrewSparrow @stephenkb @gideonrachman @openDemocracy @zoesqwilliams

'5 Billion People Could Have Poor Access to Water by 2050'

ecowatch.com/global-water-a…

@DawnHFoster @clarkemicah @wself @camillalong @LeftFootFwd @NEF @lionelbarber @parislees @gabyhinsliff @iainmartin1 @The_Real_JSP @LabourList @Bonn1eGreer

Simultaneous harvest failures in key regions would bring global famine - there is now a real risk.

theguardian.com/environment/20…

(The original list of these top 100 tweeting Politics Commentators of 2018 comes from @philbc3's blog here👇
averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2018/12/top-10…)

#EcologicalEmergency #climatechange #Arctic #Antarctic #Greenland #methane #feedbackloops #tippingpoints #mitigation #adaptation #climatejustice

@philbc3 This is the greatest political challenge in the history of humanity. Only fools and knaves would ignore The Ecological Emergency. 2019 could be our last chance to limit ecological collapse - the time has come to *talk* about it.

@philbc3 RT & Like tweets from this thread as generously as you can to join me in asking high profile UK political commentators to spend the remainder of their careers highlighting the scientific reality of what can only be called 'The Ecological Emergency'.

Time to face #Thwaites & co⌛

@philbc3 @GhoshAmitav @alextomo @LuckyHeronSay @KateRaworth @jasonhickel @Svante_Thunberg @Malena_Ernman If anyone reading this is still uncertain about whether this really is an existential crisis of epic proportion (one which is an immediate threat to billions of sentient beings) let me just add some more sobering details to further clarify our predicament:

👇

"This isn't predicted to happen. This is happening now. If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all."

cbsnews.com/news/salt-wate…

The world desperately needs joined-up action on industrial farming if it is to avoid catastrophic impacts on life on earth:

"We need a total rethink of our food and farming systems before it’s too late.”

amp.theguardian.com/environment/20…

Can we stop these greenhouse gas emissions?

Iron and steel production (4%)
Aluminium and non-ferrous metals production (1.2%)
Machinery production (1%)
Pulp, paper and printing (1.1%)
Chemicals production (4.1%)
Cement production (5%)
Other industry (7%)

theguardian.com/environment/20…

Biodiversity oblivion imperils all humans according to scientists:

“We are turning our farmland into a desert – the agriculture needs pollinators and the soil fauna. Without that, ultimately, we will die.”

theguardian.com/environment/20…

More than 100,000 Critically Endangered orangutans have been killed in Borneo since 1999.

Scientists who carried out a 16-year survey on the island described the figure as "mind-boggling".

#deforestation #logging #palmoil #mining #papermills

bbc.com/news/science-e…

Some of the oldest and largest baobabs are dying.

'More than half of the oldest trees — most of which were more than 1,000 years old & one that was nearly 2,500 years old — had either died completely or their oldest or largest stems had died since 2005.'

news.mongabay.com/2018/06/climat…

As plastic waste pollutes the oceans & fish stocks decline, unseen below the surface another problem grows: deoxygenation...conditions are unsustainable & may result in ecosystem collapses, which ultimately will cause societal and economic harm. #deadzones
science.sciencemag.org/content/359/63…

More than 1.5 billion people currently live in regions that could face desertlike conditions if global temperatures rise 1.5 degrees C above preindustrial levels by 2050 (this is horrific enough, but take a look at the next tweet👇)

grist.org/briefly/roughl…

At current rates, global average temperatures could exceed 1.5 degrees by *2030*.

We're currently heading for 3.1 - 3.7°C (hell on earth; likely termination of civilisation...).

vox.com/energy-and-env…

What happens at 4°C?

Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber asks rhetorically,

“What is the difference between two degrees and four degrees?”

“The difference, is human civilisation”.

theconversation.com/are-you-ready-…

Arctic on fire.

'Some of the biggest fires that we've seen worldwide now are occurring in the subarctic. When I first saw the reports that came out from NASA … I thought, this is crazy. That just wasn't on the radar for me - We ain't seen anything yet."
cbc.ca/amp/1.4761878

UK scientists launched a Declaration of Rebellion against the UK Gov. at the Houses of Parliament: “For criminal inaction in the face of climate change catastrophe & ecological collapse.”

Now is the time to act as a planetary emergency is already upon us. counterpunch.org/2018/11/02/reb…

A period of 'vast human misery' has begun as scientists forewarned in 1992.

Now the world's top 23,000 scientists agree: humans must reassess the role of an economy rooted in growth.

academic.oup.com/bioscience/art…

And I didn't even mention the complicated and disturbing uncertainties of aerosols and global dimming (you don't want to know, but...feel free to investigate via the brilliant @paulhbeckwith & the equally extraordinary @Guy_McPherson)

It's time for a change in our public discourse.

Citizens must be informed.

#EcologicalEmergency