The Problem
The Problem
Background
The IPCC's '1.5 Degree Report' paints a dire picture that suggests we must fundamentally change the nature of society in the next 11 yrs 6 mo (mid 2019) See “Devastating UN Report: CO2 Emissions Must Go to Zero By 2050 to Avoid Worst Effects of Climate Change” at:
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43eb4b/ipcc-15-degree-climate-change-report
“IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5ºC” (web pages) released in October 2018 is at:
“IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL)” released in August 2019 is at:
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/srccl/
“IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” (pdf) released in September 2019 is at:
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/09/SROCC-factsheet.pdf
We nearly did something 30 years ago, see “Losing Earth” at:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html ★ but were thwarted in the 80’s by the API and the fossil fuel industry that paid a few climate denier/skeptics to write editorials to raise doubt and undermine support for any policies which would affect their bottom line, when in fact it had been pretty much settled science at the time.
See the book “Losing Earth: A Recent History” - Nathan Rich – Macmillan – April 2019. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374191337
And from Bloomberg – Dec 2019 “An Exxon-Owned Firm Figured Out How to Curb CO2 in 1991”
But the media has been complacent too, see “The Media Are Complacent While the World Burns” from The Nation, Apr 2019, Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope at:
https://www.thenation.com/article/climate-change-media-aoc-gnd-propaganda/ ★
Job One for Humanity has lots of general information at:
https://www.joboneforhumanity.org/
To learn more, read the not-for-late-night:
“The Uninhabitable Earth” – David Wallace-Wells – Penguin Random House – Feb 2019 ★
perhaps summarized in Catherine Ingram’s “Facing Extinction” essay
http://www.catherineingram.com/facingextinction/
and an update from the New York Times Dec 2019 “Climate Change Is Accelerating: ‘Things Are Getting Worse” at
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/climate/climate-change-acceleration.html
or:
“The End of Ice” – Dahr Jamail – The New Press – Jan 2019. Jamail uses the term ‘climate disruption’ a lot when he describes one man’s intimate experience with nature and the visible impact of climate change on glacial retreat, deforestation, coral reefs bleaching, etc. ★
or:
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” – Bill McKibben – Henry Holt & Co – Apr 2019 ★
or:
“Storming The Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security” – Todd Miller – Sept 2017
or:
“This Civilisation Is Finished:[1]Conversations on the End of Empire - And What Lies Beyond” – Rupert Read, Samuel Alexander - Simplicity Institute – May 2019
Or:
“On Fire: - The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal” – Naomi Klein, - Simon & Schuster Sept. 2019
Then there is the report from Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that predicts that a million species are currently ( May 2019) threatened with extinction at:
https://www.ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment
One story on what Exxon knew in 1982 but didn’t share, from May 2019: “Exxon Predicted 2019’s Ominous CO2 Milestone in 1982” is at:
https://earther.gizmodo.com/exxon-predicted-2019-s-ominous-co2-milestone-in-1982-1834748763
The Keeling Curve
From Scripps Institution of Oceanography:
“Scripps scientists measured a record level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: 415 parts per million, on Sunday, May 12, 2019. This daily record, the Keeling Curve, is considered the foundation of modern climate change research. Geochemist Charles David Keeling joined Scripps in 1956 and built a manometer and other equipment to isolate the carbon dioxide in air samples. In 1958, the average carbon dioxide concentration of the first measurement was 316.16 parts per million. In 2013, the CO2 concentration surpassed 400 ppm for the first time in human history.”
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/
See <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z43FQCSg4Ow" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The Origin of the 12 Year Timeline
The 12 years in which we have to act started in October 2018. From Inside Climate News Aug 27, 2019
What Does '12 Years to Act on Climate Change' (Now 11 Years) Really Mean?
“The number began drawing attention in 2018, when the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report describing what it would take to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal of the Paris climate agreement. The report explained that countries would have to cut their anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, such as from power plants and vehicles, to net zero by around 2050. To reach that goal, it said, CO2 emissions would have to start dropping "well before 2030" and be on a path to fall by about 45 percent by around 2030 (12 years away at that time).”
