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The original was posted on /r/newzealand by /u/LuxonsLeftNut on 2024-10-12 01:35:13+00:00.
The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth was released this week. The previous 2023 report was cosigned by 15,000 scientists. Needless to say the data/science is rock solid.
Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts have said. More and more scientists are now looking into the possibility of societal collapse, says the report, which assessed 35 vital signs in 2023 and found that 25 were worse than ever recorded, including carbon dioxide levels and human population.
This is the opening paragraph:
We are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. This is a global emergency beyond any doubt. Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled. We are stepping into a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis. For many years, scientists, including a group of more than 15,000, have sounded the alarm about the impending dangers of climate change driven by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem change (Ripple et al. 2020). For half a century, global warming has been correctly predicted even before it was observed—and not only by independent academic scientists but also by fossil fuel companies (Supran et al. 2023). Despite these warnings, we are still moving in the wrong direction; fossil fuel emissions have increased to an all-time high, the 3 hottest days ever occurred in July of 2024 (Guterres 2024), and current policies have us on track for approximately 2.7 degrees Celsius (°C) peak warming by 2100 (UNEP 2023). Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts, and we can now only hope to limit the extent of the damage. We are witnessing the grim reality of the forecasts as climate impacts escalate, bringing forth scenes of unprecedented disasters around the world and human and nonhuman suffering. We find ourselves amid an abrupt climate upheaval, a dire situation never before encountered in the annals of human existence. We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo (supplemental figure S1; CenCO2PIP Consortium et al. 2023).
This report was covered by a few outlets overseas but I can find no NZ coverage. The Conversation even published these two articles:
Unprecedented peril: disaster lies ahead as we track towards 2.7°C of warming this century
A 4 C warmer world map suggests that as much as half the planet would become uninhabitable. Leading ecologists and climate scientists are warning that at 4C; “Less than a billion people will survive.” Here Schellnhuber is quoted as saying: “At 4 C Earth’s... carrying capacity estimates are below 1 billion people.” His words were echoed by professor Kevin Anderson of the U.K.’s Tyndall Centre for Climate Change: “Only about 10 per cent of the planet’s population would survive at 4 C.”
Moreover, the situation is so dire that the inventor of the ecological footprint has stated that only major changes in consumer lifestyles involving a 40% reduction globally in energy/material consumption per person (80% per capita in high-income countries) will suffice to avoid these coming catastrophes.
The planet warmed so much in 2023 that suddenly, in July of last year, the average global temperature jumped by around 0.2°C. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s the amount of warming the climate models were predicting for an entire decade. It’s like it was suddenly 2034.
Our news media is not doing enough. This should be on the frontpage of every news site/ever paper every day.
If the climate crisis wasn't bad enough BBC reports this week Wildlife numbers fall by 73% in 50 years, global stocktake finds.
Even that doesn't capture the full scope of the human predicament. Another study out last month states that Earth may have breached seven of nine planetary boundaries.
Problems have solutions. Predicaments have outcomes. We find ourselves in a predicament. This is unsolvable, all we can do is respond as best we can and strive for a better catastrophe.
Collectively we must demand that NZ media steps up to the plate and covers this with the urgency/raw truth that it demands. You have the power to drive societal change Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change.
Edit: Formatting/added links.