Ben See Profile picture
Aug 24, 2019 21 tweets 8 min read Read on X
The 2020s:

1. unprecedented crop failures
2. epic, killer heatwaves
3. the most destructive storms ever
4. the end of Arctic sea ice
5. death throes of Great Barrier Reef
6. vast, uncontrollable wildfires
7. extinction of ½ million species
8. the beginning of 'The End': Siberia
Climate catastrophe is NOW and has been unfolding for *100s of millions* throughout the 2010s.

The Guardian won't point the finger at corporate capitalism, or explain the true nature of the escalating ecological apocalypse.

theguardian.com/world/2019/jun…

climatechangenews.com/2015/12/30/oxf…
'the world is facing widespread crop failure, economic ruin, mass migration and the destruction of entire eco-systems'

⚠️ Almost 150 billion tonnes of CO2 have been emitted since this shocking, last chance warning, and emissions are accelerating... ⚠️
independent.co.uk/news/world/eur…
Climate catastrophe is HERE.

'summer heatwaves on the scale of that seen in 2018 could occur every year if global temperatures reach 2°C above pre-industrial levels' and in two of every three years from 1.5°C.

We'll reach 1.5 - 2°C by 2029.

carbonbrief.org/northern-hemis…
Record-breaking rise in temperatures and drought:

"The climate is no longer safe for people in India...richer Indians will be able to migrate to cooler parts of the world. Poorer Indians will have to stay put."ecowatch.com/india-deadly-h…
Monster Storms are already here.

However, they're going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Today's political-economic systems are so deeply inadequate when it comes to trying to protect people, that it would be immoral not to change them immediately.👇
Mainstream media is beginning to get close to the reality of the Arctic Emergency.

Most likely the summer ice will be gone well before 2029.

All ice gone by the early 2030s? ⚠️
euronews.com/2019/03/05/arc…
Videos on an Ice Free Arctic in the early 2020s here:
Climate breakdown is already severe enough to kill the Great Barrier Reef. Since 2016, coral bleaching events have killed off half of the Reef, and in the next 10 years global warming will spiral out of control.

Survival would appear to be impossible now.
When we get towards 2°C (which will be very soon), 99% of tropical coral reefs will be done for.⚠️

See here for a sobering comment:👇
Wildfires 2018:

'The apocalypse descended on Paradise at dawn.'

As global warming spirals out of control, the wildfires of the 2020s will be even worse...

nypost.com/2018/11/12/thi…
Wildfires 2018:

Climate change is the obvious culprit.

Britain’s uplands are in an ecological crisis that has stripped away their natural resistance.

Farming practices have intensified and soil has been eroded, increasing susceptibility to wildfire.telegraph.co.uk/news/fire-stor…
Wildfires 2019:

'periods of extreme heat will get longer, more frequent, and more intense. Years of actively suppressing natural fires have allowed trees, grasses, and shrubs to accumulate at unnatural levels in many parts of the world. Deforestation...'

vox.com/2019/8/22/2082…
Nobody knows for sure how many extinctions occur each year (50,000?), but the 6th mass extinction caused by humans under capitalism means 'biological annihilation'.

pnas.org/content/114/30…

How many species actually exist?

8 billion?

1 trillion?
livescience.com/54660-1-trilli…
One million species “already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken.."

Without such measures there will be a “further acceleration” in the global rate of species extinction...

news.un.org/en/story/2019/…
@guardian knew in 2010 that only 'a few years' were left to 'stop the destruction of the natural world'.

It didn't become urgent, daily front page news.

Scientists estimated: '150-200 species of plant, insect, bird & mammal become extinct every 24 hours'theguardian.com/environment/20…
The Extinction Emergency is a complex one with plenty of unknowns.

But full extinction doesn't have to occur for total calamity to hit:

The loss of local biodiversity 'may have a more immediate and profound effect on the survival of nature.' e360.yale.edu/features/globa…
The most dangerous climate feedback loop is speeding up.

In Siberia, the carbon-rich permafrost is warming rapidly.

See thread:
A 2010 analysis 'led by the UK's Met Office in Review of Geophysics recognised the plausibility of catastrophic carbon releases from Arctic permafrost thawing of between 50-100 Gt this century, with a 40 Gt carbon release from the Siberian Yedoma region'.theguardian.com/environment/ea…
'Siberia's forest is mainly comprised of an ecosystem known as boreal forest, which circles the top of the globe throughout Canada, Scandinavia and Alaska. The world's largest ecosystem, these forests are...massive savings accounts for carbon dioxide..' ⚠️
mashable.com/2016/07/18/sib…
Hell?

'Methane is of huge concern. It is more than 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and a massive release of methane in the Arctic could pose a significant threat to the global climate, driving worldwide temperatures even higher.'theguardian.com/environment/20…

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More from @ClimateBen

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
Feb 22
DOOM:  majority of scientists think difficult-or-impossible-to-survive warming of 1.9-2.1°C and rising is now unavoidable and set to begin wiping out species within years 🧵
1. 'New assessment warns area the size of the USA will become too hot during extreme heat events for even healthy young humans to maintain a safe body temperature if we hit 2°C'
kcl.ac.uk/news/half-a-de…

"if we hit 2°C"?

Virtually all scientists expect 2°C.agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
2. Even before new research confirming warming is accelerating, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists fully expected ~2°C (in most cases much more).

'perhaps half of all species will be vulnerable to thermal infertility'
phys.org/news/2021-05-i…
x.com/ClimateBen/sta…
Read 5 tweets
Feb 19
COLLAPSE: scientists indicate all aspects of human societies will be wrecked by 2029-2092 as habitat destruction and pollution intensify with unsurvivable accelerating warming of 1.95-2.15°C and rising now unavoidable even with capitalism's best-case emissions reductions 🧵
1. 'Most scientists concur..2°C of warming above the temperature during preindustrial time would harm all sectors of civilization - food, water, health, land, national security, energy & economic prosperity
scientificamerican.com/article/earth-…
Best-case: 1.96°C, 2.18°C
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10…
2. Economic growth means habitat annihilation..

"The 2C target is dead, because the global energy use is rising, and it will continue to rise”.. global heating is likely to reach 2C by 2045
dumptheguardian.com/environment/20…

2°C by 2030-2082
esd.copernicus.org/articles/12/25…
news.stanford.edu/stories/2023/0…
Read 4 tweets
Feb 11
The economy is a heat engine.
How will it cool the planet?
Collapse is already here.
Time to rethink. 🧵
1.

Economic growth: the engine of collapse

The hope is that, with astute academic guidance and sufficiently powerful doses of political will, we can safely navigate our way through the Anthropocene. 

But there are physical limits to what is possible.
2.

To get a sense of any physical limits, it helps to look at how physical systems function. A useful concept here is a thermodynamic “heat engine”... available energy powers cyclical motions thereby enabling “work’’ to be done to move something else while giving off waste heat.
Read 35 tweets
Feb 6
COLLAPSE: there is a very high likelihood that capitalism has condemned 2 to 7 billion people to an early death by 2038-2058. 🧵
1.

'a very high likelihood of 2.0 °C of regional warming by 2040 for the majority of regions, along with a likelihood of 3 °C by mid-century'
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108…
2.

Report fr risk management experts the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries:

'At 3C or more of heating by 2050, there could be more than 4 billion deaths, significant sociopolitical fragmentation worldwide, failure of states..'

dumptheguardian.com/environment/20…
Read 8 tweets

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