(1/n)
The End is Nigh by 2100:
+3°C!--The #UN's outlook for the #ClimateCrisis surpasses even my worst predictions:
Via @theguardian
"World facing ‘hellish’ 3C of climate heating, UN warns before Cop28
‘We must start setting records on cutting emissions,’ UN boss says after temperature records obliterated in 2023"
"The...(Unep) report said that implementing future policies already promised by countries would shave 0.1C off the 3C limit...
#ClimateChange
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/20/world-facing-hellish-3c-of-climate-heating-un-warns-before-cop28
(2/3)
...place #emissions cuts pledged by developing countries on condition of receiving financial and technical support 👉would cut the temperature rise to 2.5C👈, still a catastrophic scenario.
👉To get on track for the internationally agreed target of 1.5C👈, 22bn tonnes of #CO2 must be cut from the currently projected total in 2030, the report said. 👉That is 42% of global #emissions and equivalent to the output of the world’s five worst #polluters today: #China,...
(4/n)
...( https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/109972629386382918 ,) a #WealthTax for the #SuperRich (#AbolishBillionaires,) and mass home-building projects to adapt to #ClimateChange that entails prolonged heat periods, #FlashFloods, #FlashDroughts, and a significant increase in #hurricanes, even in regions that had so far been safe.
Of course, we as a race cannot afford anymore #wars either, and the mass-polution and environmental destruction they entail (look at the #Gaza strip.)
You are asking...
(5/5)
..yourself, "how likely is it that all of this is going to happen?
Honestly? Unlikely.
But as the #HumanRace is fighting for its survival (at least 2-3 billion of its specimen, some may survive,) we all don't have a choice but to try.
#Musk's #lontermist vision of humanity's future in space does clearly not include these billions. Besides, it isn't working.
So, we only have got one planet and need to get our collective act together.
//
@HistoPol I think the biggest problem with your composition is the nihilism it sets up.
Like, we can't afford more wars? Well that's a shame, because there will absolutely be more wars. And given that absolute reality I guess we might as well just all give up.
That's the problem with setting the argument at that level. It leads to impossible solutions and so it becomes a non-starter.
If it's realistic, then we might as well ignore it because we've already failed. If it's hyperbole then we might as well ignore it because it's hyperbole.
Neither option is very compelling, and that's a large reason why so many don't buy in.
Me too, Mina.
Nevertheless, people need to be shaken awake.
Humanity must jump out of the cauldron. In order for this to happen, the heat must be turned up quickly. People must become very much aware of the danger they are in.
Many if not most seem still to be thinking, "ok, yes, but it is not going to happen in my lifetime.
We need to tell them:
Wake up!
It has already started. And unless you are going to die in this decade, you will experience it.
PS:
Should look into the #SolarPunk movement some time.
Have been coming accross that term quite a bit this year.
(1/n)
Yes, the #overshoot theory entails that the human race has already failed.
The question is, however, in how many decades we can still achieve a climate similar to the one we have been enjoying in the past decades again?
Life is probabilities and statistics. If you are on a life boat, your chances of survival might be just 5%. You still fight.
On the other hand, one passenger on the boat might need sacrifice himself for the...
(2/n)
others to survive (e.g. to have enough water.)
Not seeing these probabilities means that all will perish.
Let's think out of the box for a moment.
And, yes, we will get more wars.
Scenario 1:
Yesterday, we had a discussion where we could envision a big fleet of EU warships patrolling the #Mediterranean firing on any boats with migrants which will come like the waves of Mongols against the Great Wall of ancient China.
Scenario 2
A future...
(3/n)
...#MAGA #US president might even expose the southern US border to atomic radiation on purpose, converting it into a death zone to prevend millions of migrants from crossing the border. A nightmare scenario? Of course!
We've read the corresponding #SciFi novels, Nowadays, they are not so far-fetched anymore, aren't they?
In any case, if...
(4/n)
... you are fighting for your life, and there is a small chance for your survival, you will usually still fight, regardless of the odds (some will not, but that is their choice.)
Not knowing of the severity of the predicament might make you exclude the very hard choices that might be necessary for your survival.
Let's take one example:
If more voters became aware of the drastic measures needed, implementing a #WealthTax that abolished...
(5/n)
...the billionaires and reallocated these funds for funding the transition to a "#degrowth" economic system / #CircularEconomy (#Circularity) would still be possible in the present-day democracies.
Presently, however, most of voters suffer from the frog-in-a-warm-water-bath perception problem: they will not see the danger until it is too late.
IMO, the heat must be turned up, politically speaking, to get the required drastic measures passed.
The...
(6/n)
...world must see!
This is why I strongly support #AntónioGuterres drastic form of communication yesterday regarding climate change. Or articles like the one at the beginning of this thread by #TheGuardian. More of this!
We need grassroots actions and demonstrations in the streets the way the #French do it.--Often for the wrong reasons (e.g. a minimal raise of the retirement age that is still far below that of other comparable...
(7/n)
...countries, e.g. Germany) but this can be remmedied once people understand that their survival as a society is at stake.
At least I hope that this will be the case and that we as a species will not be as dumb (or dumber) than the #cyanobacteria that caused the #GreatOxidationEvent. *
*
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/111444680477410539
//
@volkris
I sincerely hope, we as a society do not fall into collective nihilism.
What I am thinking about is that, we, as people, who care about the future, do not only need to paint the bleak outlook, if nothing changes, but also the positive alternatives.
A world with degrowth can be a better and more livable one than the one today.
That's why I love the #solarpunk movement so much: Because it presents an alternative vision of the future.
@HistoPol @TheGuardian