This thread gives you the best moments of a presentation held by climate scientist Professor Will Steffen, held in Australia in June 2018.
You should really watch this as he finds exceptionally clear words to describe the urgency of our situation. #ClimateCrisis
[THREAD 1/13]
Professor Will Steffen explains the concept of carbon budgets, its limitations and how much time we have left. He also talks about probabilities and why we can’t have a 75% chance anymore to hit the Paris 2°C. We have simply blown the available budget already.
[THREAD 2/13]
In this part of his presentation Professor Will Steffen points at the risks in food production that we are going to face at 2°C warming. #ClimateChange will act as a multiplier for other threats. "When people are starving, they either move or they fight. Or both."
[THREAD 3/13]
Will Steffen: "I ask people how much colder was the last ice age. The common answer I get is about 20°C. Well the difference between now and the depth of an ice age is 4°C. So talking about going up by 4°C, we're talking about an unrecognisable state of the earth."
THREAD [4/13]
In this part Professor Will Steffen is showing the climate of the Holocene and zooming in on the last 2000 years and the rates of change. "This is just far too fast for natural ecosystems to cope with."
[THREAD 5/13]
This is important.
Professor Will Steffen: "Unfortunately this is the way 99.9% of the time scientists present projections for the future. You got to do it another way… There aren’t many scientists who think we will actually meet the 1.5°C target."
[THREAD 6/13]
Professor Will Steffen explains that there will be no in between state. "In other words, if we miss the 2°C target we might not be able to get to 3°C because of tipping points in the system. If we blow that target there is no guarantee we are able to control it."
[THREAD 7/13]
Professor Will Steffen explains the concept of tipping points and focuses on the Amazon and permafrost. "There is a tipping point around 2°C where we will loose most of the Amazon rainforest. If we loose the permafrost there is no way are going to stop at 3°C."
[THREAD 8/13]
Professor Will Steffen explains about the tipping points of Greenland and Antarctica. He also introduces the concept of tipping cascades. "Tipping points are not going to act in isolation. Once we hit 2°C we hit a global tipping point that humanity cannot control."
[THREAD 9/13]
Tipping cascades are not part of the climate models yet. Professor Will Steffen about irreversibility: "Can we go back? No! You break the climate system, you own it." Business as usual could bring us to 7°C by 2300. Climate will not recover for thousands of years.
[THREAD 10/13]
Prof. Will Steffen explains reductions pathways. "Next realistic chance to peak global emissions is 2020. Then we can still hit the 2°C but we got to get out of carbon by 2040. But if we delay to 2025: Impossible! You’d have to totally decarbonise in one decade."
[THREAD 11/13]
Prof. Will Steffen explains what a 4°C world is like. "Changing rainfall patterns will make agricultural areas unproductive. A lot of scientists say about 1 billion may be able to live in a 4°C world. This is not going to be a gentle, planned population decline."
[THREAD 12/13]
Please feel free to pick out videos you like and retweet separately with a comment. This way we have a better chance of reaching out into other bubbles.
I can also recommend to watch the whole presentation. It takes about one hour:
[THREAD 13/13]
This is the graph shown in this video. We are only talking about projections until 2100 and we act like #ClimateChange will suddenly stop then. No. It is a politically set date. And of course #globalheating will continue after that. This graph shows 7°C until 2300. Uninhabitable.
This is the same graph shown in this video taken from Professor Steffens lecture on "Climate Science and Policy" available on edx free of charge. I can strongly recommend this: edx.org/course/climate…
BonusTweet [13+1/13]
If you feel helpless now, I understand that. I’ve been there too. But we need to get up and fight for our kids! #Actionhelps @Psychologists4F
If you made it through all the 13 tweets and you still want to know more: 👏
This might be interesting for you as well👇Exceptionally blunt.
A Panel discussion from 2018 with Nobel Price Laureate Steven Chu @energybroseph, Johan Rockström @jrockstrom, Lisen Schultz @resiliencer and Julian Dowdeswell.
This is the slide from this video and maybe the most important message of the whole thread. We might trigger a self-reinforcing heating like a domino effect which might not allow us to stop #GlobalHeating once we breach the first tipping point of the cascade. Expected around 2°C.
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»Do you take us for fools? Do you think you can just completely remove the disguise and we won’t notice?«
#COP28 is going to be a disaster. And the whole COP process is in the hammerlock of the fossil fuel industry.
Al Gore exposes all their plans in a brilliant way! 👏
🧵 1/7
»Last year at the COP, the fossil fuel petro states vetoed any mention of phasing down fossil fuels. They say fossil fuels are not the problem. Let me tell you: the #ClimateCrisis is a fossil fuel crisis! And this industry as a whole has not been acting in good faith.«
🧵 2/7
@algore »Now the fossil fuel industry is pushing another brazen fraud, by telling the world that the problem is not fossil fuels, but only the emissions from fossil fuels. They are using non-improving tech like CCS and Direct Air Capture as an excuse for never ever stopping oil.«
»We are actually entering a stage of 'pre-traumatic syndrome'. Millions of young people who understand the science are terrified and already today beginning to live in trauma and grief. It’s not a question of #climate denial today, it’s a question of climate paralysis.«
🧵1/6
»Optimism is not about assuming that someone else is going to take care of the problem. Someone else will not take care of it. We need to stand up to the challenge of the reality that we face. None of us alone but all of us collectively can change the trajectory we’re on.«
🧵2/6
»There are millions of young people, but not just young people, who are in deep pain and desperation, in grief and many of whom have fallen into depression. And I understand that not only in my head but in my heart. But what are we going to do about it?«
»Banks and fossil fuel companies have captured the policy-making process in key countries and have intentionally zombified as many people as they can around the world with false messaging. We have to solve the #DemocracyCrisis in order to solve the #ClimateCrisis!«
@algore
🧵1/5
»Scientists have reached a conclusion that more facts, more data, more research is of absolutely no good unless we, the people can find the means to break through the imprisonment of our self-determination on the part of massive polluters who are just looking for profits.«
🧵2/5
@algore @TEDTalks »We have to stop destroying our future. We have all the technologies we need to cut emissions in half by 2030, fully developed with deployment plans that have been proven to work. It sounds so simple, but we have to break through this paralysis! Do not give up hope.«
Professor Kevin Anderson is addressing all of us in very clear words:
»We are heading towards 3 to 4°C of warming across this century, an absolute climate catastrophe for all species incl our own. And all we are doing so far is giving rhetoric and optimism and greenwash.«
🧵1/8
»We are locking in very high levels of sea level rise, maybe 7-8 meters. We are changing weather and rainfall patterns as well as insect pollination of our crops. All of this plays out one disaster after another. We’re talking about society collapse here.«
– @KevinClimate
🧵2/8
@KevinClimate »Countries make various promises about what they are going to do against climate change. These promises are a disaster and still overly optimistic because they only rely on future generations, our children and grandchildren to develop technologies that we don’t have today.«
🧵3/8
„Wie sicher sind Sie denn, dass das was Sie jetzt so apokalyptisch an die Wand malen wirklich passiert, oder dass nicht irgendwie etwas passiert, das das doch nicht wahr werden lässt? Vielleicht stoppt es sich von alleine?“
[THREAD 1/6]
„Der Grund, warum Politiker SUVs in Innenstädten nicht verbieten, ist nicht die Angst vor dem Wähler. Die Mehrheit fährt doch keine SUVs. Die Automobilindustrie lebt von Autos, die deutlich schneller als 💯 hundert fahren und finanziert damit die Elektromobilität.“
[THREAD 2/6]
„Die Leute in führenden Positionen sind jetzt in unserem Alter und die meinen, sie würden die schlimmsten Auswirkungen des Klimawandels nicht erleben, und Politiker handeln sich einen unglaublichen Ärger ein, denn sie müssten bestimme Geschäftsmodelle verbieten.“
„Im schlimmsten Fall könnte die Zivilisation zusammenbrechen. Das ist nicht übertrieben. Ich kann dafür keine genaue Wahrscheinlichkeit nennen, Ihnen aber sicher sagen, sie liegt weit über Null.“
— Prof. Will Steffen, 2018 @ANU_Climate & @climatecouncil #Klimakrise
[THREAD 1/15]
„Viele Wissenschaftler gehen davon aus, dass der Kipppunkt für Korallenriffe sehr bald bevorsteht, oder schon überschnitten ist. Selbst mit dem 1,5°C Ziel würden wir die meisten der Korallenriffe für immer verlieren. Das ist der Preis, den wir jetzt schon zahlen.“
[THREAD 2/15]
Professor Will Steffen rechnet das globale Kohlenstoffbudget für eine 66% Chance vor, die globale Erwärmung auf 2°C zu beschränken. Wohl gemerkt nicht für 1,5°C.
„Das Budget für eine 75% Chance könnten wir schon gar nicht mehr einhalten.“