1. The natural world is collapsing 2. Earth's climate soon won't suit us 3. A 6th mass extinction has begun 4. Free market capitalism must end 5. Economic growth is destructive 6. Government intervention is vital 7. Energy distribution must be fair
Front page news?
BIOLOGICAL ANNIHILATION EMERGENCY:
There is 'a common misimpression that Earth’s biota is not immediately threatened, just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss.'
In reality 'the window for effective action is very short'.
⚠️ We cannot keep the current growth economy if we want to survive according to the recent IPBES report and the 23,000 scientists who put their names to the ideas in this paper (academic.oup.com/bioscience/art…) amongst many others...
'If the U.S. and the world are to succeed in limiting disruptive climate change, the U.S. will have to give up the idea that free markets alone can adequately address climate change markets need help from governments'scientificamerican.com/article/withou…
INEQUALITY EMERGENCY:
"A key constituent of sustainable pathways is steering away from the current limited paradigm of economic growth..That implies incorporating the reduction of inequalities into development pathways, reducing overconsumption and waste"
The only decent, workable response 'is energy as a public good, a global decentralised RE energy system, with a massive reduction in energy use together w/ total break up of agribusiness model with food as a right & agro-ecology as model.'
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.🧵
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…
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
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…
2. Even before new research confirming warming is accelerating, the overwhelming majority of climate scientists fully expected ~2°C (in most cases much more).
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 🧵
"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…
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.