Ben See Profile picture
Aug 10, 2019 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Earth is rapidly being transformed into a desert planet with catastrophic consequences for most living things.

[THREAD]
4 - 5 billion people, most of them already living in poverty, will see their habitats undergo an acutely challenging transformation as we head rapidly to an extremely dangerous 2.5°C world of year long droughts and food shortages due to locked in warming and climate feedbacks.
Desertification - the greatest threat.

Land degradation of dry lands:

North and southern Africa, western North America, Australia, the Middle East & Central Asia. Drylands are home to 2.7 billion people – 90% of whom live in developing countries'carbonbrief.org/explainer-dese…
Aridification will emerge over ~25% of Earth's land surface.

Areas most affected: SE Asia, S. Europe, S. Africa, Central America and Southern Australia - home to more than 1.5 billion people. Areas would become more arid; droughts & wildfires widespread.
dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ar…
We're hurtling into 'climate states without societal precedent, challenging adaptation', a world where 'climates like those of the Pliocene will prevail as soon as 2030'.

2. 5°C by 2030: to a climate 'outside the range of evolutionary adaptive capacity'?

The implications are clear.

Surviving decently (or at all) in a world of rapidly escalating extreme water stress/scarcity & mega-drought food shortages is quickly going to become exceedingly difficult for billions of people.

See thread here for 4°C:👇
See the thread under my Pinned Tweet for what we can do about all this.

It is time to dismantle colonial, corporate capitalism and shift the world into a new phase of climate justice. The alternative is a mass die-off.

We're endangered mammals. 👇
If you're wondering where the map comes from:

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More from @ClimateBen

May 10
Irreversible unsurvivable warming:

1.5-1.75°C by 2024-2026
1.75-2°C by 2029-2031
2-2.25°C by 2034-2036

Time's up.

Rethink human systems now to protect species and everyone while it's still too late.

🧵 1.75°C by 2030
State-corporate journalists/editors have ignored the latest climate models for years and years. They've had the information needed to warn the public for decades. Hellish two degrees and rising in the 2030s is nearly here.

System change to try to survive.
The Extinction Economy is wiping out life as we know it. 40-70% of species are at critical extreme risk of extinction within a few decades. Abrupt climate change is just one compounding factor in the annihilation of biodiversity and life as we know it.

🧵
Read 5 tweets
Apr 29
Scientists used to think utterly unsurvivable extremes wouldn't hit until 2081-2300 or later (or never). Now they fully expect abrupt global extinction horror by the 2040s.
1. 'What happens in the next two decades will very likely define the future of biodiversity and H. sapiens.' From 2023.

Read 13 tweets
Mar 30
DOOM: For 250 years between 1720 and 1969, the US, UK, & Europe were the main CO2 emitters and the key wreckers of biodiversity. These criminal countries subsequently blocked any attempts to change the deeply entrenched economic system away from deadly capitalism and growth. Share of global CO2 emissions- Our World in Data
1. The US knew by the 1950s/60s that systems change was required to avoid global catastrophe. Scientists informed the President. However, the priorities remained power and wealth.

Read 6 tweets
Mar 24
Earth's species will suffer global warming of 2, 2.5, or 3°C in 12 to 14 years. (No scientist really thinks we won't hit at least 1.96°C for the first time by 2038 after hitting 1.68°C in 2024.) Primates like humans are unlikely to survive for very much longer. Time to rethink.🧵 Headline excerpt : the world will see 3°C much faster than expected
1. "a rise in global temperatures of 3.1C is not compatible with human survival." @jeremycorbyn
Organise for political and economic system change action while it's still too late to protect species and everyone.
dumptheguardian.com/commentisfree/…
3°C trend from 2045.
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…
Read 9 tweets
Mar 4
New research shows we're heading for rapid mass extinction at 3-5°C of global warming even if we avoid the so-called worst-case scenarios. 🧵 SSP scenarios will result in far more warming than thought
3 to 4 or even 5°C with the 'moderate' SSP2-4.5 emissions scenario.
SSP3-7.0 looks closer to reality to me, so 4-5°C.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
We should in fact anticipate 3.5-5°C by 2075-2125.

See new research from December 2024:
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…

x.com/Peters_Glen/st…
Read 5 tweets
Mar 2
COLLAPSING:  scientists indicate civilisation-wrecking conditions are already developing as rapid mass extinction accelerates with billions set to be killed from 2029- 2048🧵
Current generic extinction rates likely to greatly accelerate in coming decades due to economic growth & overconsumption by the rich.
Economic activities during capitalism are destroying the conditions that make human life possible.
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…
salon.com/2023/09/19/exp…
Plastic contamination will soon be "catastrophic" for human health and is slowly "killing the human race"

more cancer, more allergic diseases, more infertility

microplastics are everywhere

google.com/amp/s/news.sky…
Read 7 tweets

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