Thread by @ClimateBen

Scientists say the public should be terrified by the deluge of recent extinction research known as 'the Apocalypse Papers' calling for it to immediately become part of daily human conversations. 🧵

1. 'The public should be terrified by these findings,. The natural habitats are still being bulldozed and lost on a daily basis,. It has to become part of daily conversation and awareness, and it’s not right now.”

#ExtinctionEconomy

insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/…

2. “I have a whole folder, I call them apocalypse papers,” said Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, a prominent U.S. environmental advocacy and research center.'

#ExtinctionEconomy

insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/…

3a. 'Curry is part of a growing chorus of scientists worldwide calling for an immediate paradigm shift in the way humans travel, produce energy, grow their food and consume goods. Such a shift is not only necessary to tackle climate change, Curry said,'

insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/…

3b 'it’s also critical to mitigating the threat of mass extinction, as a rapidly increasing number of species of plants & animals face the threat of losing their natural habitats to inhospitable heat + the growing footprint of human industry & agriculture.'insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/…

4a. 'In the last two weeks alone, a slew of research papers predicting horrific outcomes of biodiversity loss and mass extinction were published in major journals at an alarming pace, underscoring warnings from the scientific community that the consequences of global warming are

4b. becoming more intense and accelerating far faster than previously understood.

Last week, researchers reported in another study that the world’s insects were in dramatic decline in both population and diversity due to the combination of climate change & expanding agriculture.

4c. In some areas, overall insect populations dropped nearly in half, with more than a quarter fewer species found, the study said.

Then on Wednesday, in a first-of-its-kind study, researchers declared that more than 1 in 5 species of reptiles—including iconic animals like

4d. chameleons, Komodo dragons and king cobras—are now at risk of extinction as humans continue to take away their habitat for farming, urban development and other industry. And on Thursday, another study warned that the climate crisis is pushing Earth’s oceans toward a mass

4e. extinction event at a level not seen in about 250 million years, when scientists believe up to 90 percent of marine organisms went extinct due to overheated, acidic and deoxygenated oceans.

Taken altogether, the studies show how

4f. the rate at which animals and plants are going extinct because of human activity is getting worse and accelerating beyond what scientists had previously feared, Curry said.'

insideclimatenews.org/todaysclimate/…

5. The idea of 15%-37% of species committed to extinction by mid-century is horrific. This key study showing that in an extreme scenario the top end of the range could be 50% of species extinct is now considered an underestimate by recent research.

Thread:

https://twitter.com/ClimateBen/status/1524060860607610883?t=V4iC8nFjwdIeVSJJYmcMlA&s=19

6. We face 1.8°C-2.4°C global warming horrors by 2040 or soon after.

Degrowth is essential to limit the damage, but what do we do about aerosols?

We should be talking about the staggering threat of an aerosol termination shock.

Thread:

https://twitter.com/ClimateBen/status/1465675827333509126?t=V4iC8nFjwdIeVSJJYmcMlA&s=19

7. Not many human conversations about near-term mass extinction. I wonder if other species communicate with each other about the state of their collapsing ecosystems? I bet they do, in some way we can't appreciate.

https://twitter.com/ClimateBen/status/1437512143583301640?t=V4iC8nFjwdIeVSJJYmcMlA&s=19

8. The longer capitalist GDP growth is allowed to continue the more I fear mass extinction within decades not centuries/millenia.

(World experts on the Amazon Rainforest say all deforestation must end by 2025 to avoid an unstoppable death spiral collapse.)

https://twitter.com/ClimateBen/status/1524018054455250944?t=NfzQyBqFKmOp2Uir_zaUwA&s=19