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Mar 2 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: UN Secretary General says many of Earth's ecosystems "are at the point of no return NOW" 🧵
1. Economic growth is taking us to 1.6-2.4°C by 2050.

"places where people live and work may cease to exist.. ecosystems and species that we've all grown up with and that are central to our cultures and inform our languages may disappear"

See video clip:bbc.com/news/science-e…
2. Ecosystem collapse is caused by so many elements of today's destructive growth economy. It's not just abrupt climate change.

We can act to protect species and everybody, but it will take profound system change.

We must focus on this.

Media?

Silent.
3. Economic growth is taking us deeper and deeper into mass extinction. Deforestation, logging, road-building, plastic & chemical & light & noise pollution, pesticides, mining, deep sea trawling, industrial agriculture, construction,...

Not just climate:
4. We must re-organise the way we live. We must rethink energy.

Media systems are not providing/supporting an adequate discourse around how we can best act on this predicament. Profound change, not 'green' growth and 100s of millions of electric cars..

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More from @ClimateBen

Ben See Profile picture
Mar 3
Climate scientists don't think this economic system will keep us below horrific 1.5-1.7°C of global warming.

We're heading for 2°C by 2045.

Even if we get on a lower emissions path we exceed 1.8°C by 2050/2090, and we're nowhere near it.

Where are the system change headlines?
1.6/1.7C by 2050 even on profoundly unlikely lower emissions scenarios.

Ever hear scientists saying we'll be at 1.4C in 2090 with this economy? No chance.

1.5-1.7C is too much for the oceans, too much for our fragmented, suffering forests.

This economy cannot help or protect. Image
1.4°C-1.5°C is too much for tropical corals and many species to cope with.

1.6°C-1.7°C in a world of logging and deforestation is unthinkable.

Read 8 tweets
Ben See Profile picture
Mar 1
🧵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…
Read 9 tweets
Ben See Profile picture
Feb 11
Do climate and energy experts often ignore the fact we're in a mass extinction that's now accelerating during 21st century capitalism because it disrupts their visions of 'solutions'?

THREAD. 🧵
1. We're in a mass extinction due to habitat destruction, pollution, and many other factors including abrupt climate change: 20% (30-50%?) of species face extinction by 2050, and 75% of mammals as early as 2300.

We don't know which species can survive 1.75°C-2.75°C by the 2040s.
2. It seems many climate and energy experts say climate change won't lead to human extinction within decades or centuries, without acknowledging that extinction threats to species come from a range of activities likely to be maintained in a 'green' growth, 'clean' energy economy.
Read 14 tweets
Ben See Profile picture
Feb 11
The global economy threatens 20%-50% of species with extinction by 2050.

Global use of materials is outpacing population growth:

1972: 29 billion tonnes
2000: 55 billion tonnes
2019: 100 billion tonnes
2050: 184 billion tonnes

It's the *system* that's killing everything.🧵
1.'Material extraction & use are climbing year on year
In only 50 years, global use of materials has nearly quadrupled—outpacing population growth. In 1972, as the Club of Rome’s report Limits to Growth was published, the world consumed 28.6 billion tonnes'
2. Abrupt climate change isn't the only reason we may consider ourselves in a terrible predicament. Extinction is escalating due to deforestation, logging, road-building, pollution..

Only system change action may limit the damage and/or protect us. Thread:
Read 5 tweets
Ben See Profile picture
Feb 10
Today's economic system is taking us to 1.6°C-2°C by the 2030s with emissions now rising towards epic new extreme record highs compounding the extinction-ecosystem collapse crisis.

These tenths of a degree mean mass death, a truth which must be faced if we want effective action.
It's disheartening we're not facing the fact that 1.75°C-2.5°C, likely by the end of the 2040s, would mean billions of peoples' lives either turned upside down or taken from them without profound system change.

Mass animal deaths are on the rise.

Thread:
The impacts at 1.75C-3C would be shattering for species and billions of people.

IPCC aurhors have made clear there are definitely impacts we can't cope with from 2C.

1.25C is already putting enormous strain on our food systems. 1.75C would be awful.
Read 4 tweets
Ben See Profile picture
Feb 8
According to scientists, economic growth cannot prevent us exceeding somewhere between 1.6°C and 2.4°C of global warming by the 2040s, when a staggering 20% of species face extinction.

When you listen to the scientists, you realise economic system change is the only way. 🧵
1.
'The most optimistic scenario has global temperature nudging past 1.5°C by mid-century but then dropping back by late century. Such a relatively short excursion above 1.5°C might not trigger the worst outcomes, according to the panel.'

'might not'..

yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/08/key-ta…
2.
Of course, a lot of climate scientists still cling to the "don't reduce emissions so fast that it disrupts the economy" idea.

But plenty recognise that 10%-30% of species threatened within 25 years by the growth economy signals a need for change.

Read 5 tweets

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