Scientists are warning of the collapse of Earth and “Too many people will die” as the current climate path we are on means the global “temperature rise” is fast leading to a “disaster” for man kind.
Two climate scientists Professors Johan Rockstrom and David King have warned at the opening of the Innovation Zero Congress in London, that planet Earth is heading to a certain disaster.
The current climate policies are going to leave the planet between 2.5C and 2.7C warmer by 2100, Earth has already warmed by 1.2C.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation, there is a two-thirds chance that scientists will in the next five years record a 1.5C temperature rise.
Under the Paris Agreement in 2015 the United Nations member states had pledged to limit the rise in temperature below 2C and aim for 1.5C.
Prof Rockstrom gave a grim warning, “1.5C is not a target. I call it a physical limit.
“There’s one conclusion without any uncertainty whatsoever, and that is that 2.5C global mean surface temperature rise is a disaster.
“The Arctic Circle is currently warming up 4-5x normal, a 24-ft sea level rise… signs are there that we’ve passed the point of no return.”
– @Sir_David_King @jrockstrom @joannagtweets #InnovationZero pic.twitter.com/B5CEjcHaJx— Innovation Zero (@_InnovationZero) May 24, 2023
“It’s something that humanity has absolutely no evidence that we can cope with. It would actually exceed the warmest temperature on Earth over the past four million years.
“Push ourselves to 2.5C – we’re in unknown terrain. It would lead to a complete melting of the big ice sheets, which would be a 10 metre sea level rise.
“There would be a collapse of all the big biomes on planet Earth – the rainforest, many of the temperate forests – abrupt thawing of permafrost, we will have complete collapse of marine biology, we will have a shift of large parts of the habitability on Earth.
“Over one-third of the planet around the equatorial regions will be uninhabitable because you will pass the threshold of health, which is around 30C.
“It’s only in some parts of the Sahara Desert today that has that kind of average temperature.
“So in summary, it’s a place we do not want to go to. The problem is, we’re following that path today.”
He added that we could see the Earth heat up uncontrollably towards a man made natural disaster because once we hit 1.5C five trigger points could happen.
Prof King, warned, that three out of the five trigger points affect the Arctic as the region is heating up between four to five times faster than any other parts of the planet.
Prof Rockstrom added, “The big fear that we have in science is when you cause tipping points, when the system goes from self-cooling to self-warming.
“Today we’re the ones causing the warming but the nightmare is of course, the moment the planet itself starts causing the warming and that’s what we under all circumstances have to avoid.”
Asked if he had a magic wand to summon whatever change he would like to see, Prof King said he wishes the Earth’s natural systems were treated as importantly as human ones and that we learn to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere at scale while refreezing the polar regions and Himalayas.
He added, “That 1.5C target is a must. If we don’t stay below that, frankly, the talk about going up to 2C then bringing the temperature down by removing greenhouse gases, that is not good enough.
“Too many people will die in that period when we allow the temperatures to go up.”
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