Further Reading
In October 2018, the International Panel on Climate Change IPCC reported that we only have 12 years to change how we live, globally. It described the enormous harm that anything above a 1.5oC rise in global temperature would cause. It told us that limiting to 1.5oC may still be possible yet requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”
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Yet with temperatures now heading towards 3oC, the warnings of climate and ecological breakdown are already here:
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In the year since the IPCC report, there are more signs that tipping points are being reached. In December 2018 it was reported that the rate of Greenland’s ice melt has quadrupled. Soon after, NASA discovered a huge cavern has opened up under Antarctica, and that a polar vortex destabilised sending freezing Arctic weather over the American Midwest. Temperature records have been broken worldwide. In February 2019 the BBC reported how the Met Office have said that in the next five years’ we could break ‘safe’ thresholds, risking global climate instability and runaway climate heating. Also in February 2019, there were reports of a catastrophic decline in insect populations which will soon affect our food supplies. Increased disasters are now inevitable.
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The below resources give more information on the unfolding emergency and what can be done:
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Emergency on Planet Earth, by Dr Emily Grossman
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‘The devastation of human life is in view’, David Wallace-Wells, author and journalist
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Deep adaptation and navigating climate tragedy, Jem Bendell
‘This civilisation is finished: so what is to be done?’, Dr Rupert Read, environmental philosopher
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Stop Ecocide, become an earth protector
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Culture Declares Emergency
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