Thread by @ClimateBen

🧵icymi

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future

International Energy Agency: CO2 emissions are set to hit record levels in 2023 and there's no peak in sight

1. 'global emissions are set to increase almost 14 per cent over the current decade. That spells catastrophe'

Economic growth is a root problem, and yet the UN net zero 2050 plan is based on more growth. news.un.org/en/story/2022/…

2. Corporations and governments are setting up new fossil fuel production.

The US and Canada amongst others are the big oil and gas producers of the 2020s.

We can and must take action to protect everyone and all species. But we'll have to face reality.
cnbc.com/2021/07/20/co2…

3. 'we scientists decided to construct ever more elaborate fantasy worlds in which we would be safe. The price to pay for our cowardice: having to keep our mouths shut about the ever growing absurdity of the required planetary-scale carbon dioxide removal' theconversation.com/climate-scient…

4. 'global emissions must peak...within the next few years.'

But this only gives a slim, theoretical chance.

1.75°C or even 2°C may be beyond us no matter what according to IPCC scientists' recent work.

We must act.
We must face reality.

System change.theconversation.com/ipcc-report-gl…

5. Scientists expect growth will take us to 1.7-1.8C by the 2030s/40s or soon after.

New IPCC report: at 1.7-1.8C 'half the human population could be exposed to periods of life-threatening climatic conditions arising from heat and humidity'

System change.bbc.com/news/science-e…

6. What happens if emissions do plummet? Can we avoid an aerosol shock? Methane would have to be dealt with. Would that be enough?

We can take action to protect everybody & all species but we're not even seeing the necessary discussions in media.

Thread:

https://twitter.com/ClimateBen/status/1465675827333509126?s=20&t=l3jOjVCIophTZvrrnCP3tg

7. 'Growthist assumptions predominate in much of it. Critiques of growthism are represented, which is an important step, but the discussion lacks specificity and does not capture many of the key points that have been established in the literature.' Thread:

https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1498332286688935949?s=20&t=l3jOjVCIophTZvrrnCP3tg

8. I personally suspect we've gone too far down the capitalism-colonialism-imperialism-extractivism-deforestation road to keep anything like today's industrial world going and expect decent survival for species. We need equity. Slow it down. Simplify. Organise profound change.