Is This the World We're Bequeathing to our Grandkids?

 

Are we about to plunge out grandchildren into a climate that the Earth hasn't known in 50 million years? A new report analyzing prehistoric levels of CO2 warns that may be what we're doing if we don't abandon fossil energy as rapidly and totally as possible.

Scientists looked into Earth's ancient history and found that it would take serious action in reducing fossil fuel emissions to prevent our climate from reaching prehistoric warming levels.

An international team of researchers has peered into the past to piece together the most complete history to date of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on Earth over the last 66 million years in a new study. With this work, they aimed to bolster our understanding of the link between CO2 and climate, show how things have really changed since the time when dinosaurs last walked planet Earth and look to Earth's future as climate change continues to threaten our planets and its inhabitants.

With this study, the team showed how, without a significant reduction in fossil fuel emissions, Earth will soon reach CO2 levels as high as they were about 50 million years ago.

"If we allow fossil fuel burning to continue to grow, our grandchildren may experience CO2 levels that haven't been seen on Earth for around 50 million years, a time when crocodiles roamed the Arctic," lead researcher James Rae, a researcher at the University of St. Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in Scotland, said in a statement.

"CO2 has transformed the face of our planet before," Rae said, and "unless we cut emissions as quickly as possible, it will do it again."

Remind me why Justin Trudeau thinks a new pipeline to flood world markets with bitumen is a good idea. To me it sounds more like criminal negligence.


Comments

  1. TrailblazerJune 3, 2021 at 5:17 PM

    Remind me why Justin Trudeau thinks a new pipeline to flood world markets with bitumen is a good idea.

    One side of me wishes to think Justin is running out the clock until the realities of life finally catch up with the great unwashed!
    The other side , suggests he is out of his league and incompetent.

    Most governing political parties are playing a game of chicken as they obey their corporate masters.
    He who blinks last in their application of climate saving measures will reap the biggest profit!

    TB

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Disaffected LibJune 3, 2021 at 9:09 PM

    In western economies, perhaps more than most, we are playing the "not just yet" game. We know we must change. We know time is running out. We still think there must be another ten or twenty years to make hay while the sun shines. Besides, we are steeped in the tradition of seeing problems as some successor's worry.

    ReplyDelete
  3. GyorJune 4, 2021 at 5:12 AM

    Your obsession with doom scrolling is only going to drive you mad and it won't fix climate change, as everyone who read this blog already believes its a serious problem already. Maybe focus more on cutting edge science solutions to this issue, hope is vital part of the solution, because folks without hope don't try, they see no point in it. Morale matters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Northern PoVJune 4, 2021 at 7:31 AM

    "Maybe focus more on cutting edge science solutions to this issue"

    Ah yes, the 'Black Swan technology will save us" meme. That's definitely Mound's new marching orders!!

    "hope is vital part of the solution"

    Ya think?
    "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    Hope is the enemy of hard work because we are putting our faith in a higher power rather than acting.

    For example:
    Kerry: Let's invent green-tech to escape the climate crisis.
    Trudeau: OK, TMX will pay for the green-tech Kerry likes.
    Etc. Etc.

    We are currently at stage three of climate grief.

    1) denial.
    2) anger.
    3) 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆
    4) depression.
    5) acceptance.

    So Gyor, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us, all this doom scrolling is needed till we all get to stage 5 and start getting serious about the myriad eco-crises we've cooked up.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Disaffected LibJune 4, 2021 at 11:42 AM

    Gyor, you might find it helpful to look at Dark Mountain. It's a collective of people who are "tired of the lies society tells itself" about the climate emergency.

    Naomi Klein believes it's a bunch of fatalists who have thrown in the towel. She's wrong.

    DM is about fighting the good fight free of the burden of delusion that "they'll think of something" or that there are quick fixes, the sort of thing you suggest.

    I wonder if the science types who keep updating this research would agree it's better to go the "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" route.

    We'll never get anywhere without the unvarnished truth. That doesn't mean we should capitulate, just the opposite. While much of the damage our descendants will experience is already irreversible there is still plenty we can - and seemingly will - do to make it even more difficult, more dangerous. Our hope may ease our consciences but it won't do them a damn bit of good.

    Time is running out, Gyor. That's partly because the time lines for meaningful action are so long. Windows of opportunity are being foreclosed today as they have been for the past twenty years and more. Now is precisely the time we need to be howling to the heavens.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Caillo Lisa June 26, 2021 at 8:48 AM

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