Code Red Climate Emergency

We are in a climate emergency. At current rates of greenhouse gas emissions, we have less than seven years left in our global “carbon budget” to stay under the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to Science and the Climate Clock https://climateclock.world/science. 

Before we began burning fossil fuels, our atmospheric carbon level was at about 270 parts per million (ppm). Today it is at 419 ppm and rising fast, according to Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Observatory. This is the highest level since accurate measurement began 63 years ago. 

The atmospheric burden of carbon dioxide (C02) is now comparable to where it was four million million years ago when it was around 400 ppm. During that time sea level was 78 feet higher than today, and the average temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit higher.

Today we are experiencing more and worsening extreme droughts, storms, wildfires, rain bombs, bomb cyclones, hurricanes, tornados, and other dangerous and unseasonable weather.

Job One for Humanity is a nonprofit climate change think tank that is 100% publicly funded. They provide independent and uncensored climate change analysis. There are four global warming extinctions and five phases of runaway global heating, some of which are irreversible for centuries, according to joboneforhumanity.org.  

 We are entering the second phase of runaway global heating. If we don’t stop the increase in global warming, in the next 3 to 7 years, we will experience runaway global warming. 

In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to larger and often irreversible changes in the climate system. If tipping points are crossed, they are likely to severely impact human society.

An overview of the four extinction and accelerating tipping points:

 1. The carbon 386 ppm tipping point, which we passed in 2015. At this point, we entered into the beginning of the first phase of runaway global heating. (This was discovered by James Hansen, the NASA scientist who was one of the first to warn the world of the extinction threat.)

2. The 2025 carbon 425-450 ppm tipping point. (This is the second phase of runaway global heating, contributing to an unavoidable extinction process for half of humanity by mid-century. This second phase is generally seen as irreversible for centuries.)

3. The 2042-2067 or earlier carbon 500 ppm tipping point begins the runaway global ice melt. (This is the third phase of irreversible runaway global heating, which accelerates the unavoidable extinction process for half of humanity by mid-century and can lead to the extinction of a far greater portion of humanity. This third phase is irreversible for centuries.)

4. The 2063-2072 or earlier, the carbon 600 ppm near-total human extinction tipping point due to massive methane releases from the permafrost and the oceans.  This climate change tipping point creates the fourth phase of runaway global heating. This fourth phase is irreversible for centuries.)

5. The post-2972, the carbon 750 ppm final and fifth phase of irreversible runaway global heating. (This crossed threshold leads to inevitable total human and biological extinction.) This fifth phase may be irreversible forever or for many centuries.)

Job One for Humanity claims that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was underestimated by about 20% and up to 40%.

However, the latest IPCC report, the Sixth Assessment released in 2023, aligns more with Job One for Humanity’s timeline. IPCC warns that the world is reducing climate pollution too slowly, risking severe damages, costs, and upheaval. Even if we sharply reduced emissions today, it concludes that more warming should be expected for decades. 

With the current climate policies, the world is on track to warm 2.7 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century. Scientists warn that this level of warming could trigger tipping points that would spark runaway climate change.

Unfortunately, we have crossed the 386 ppm tipping point, where our average global temperature will rise above 1.5C. Rapidly rising global temperatures are not the worst effect of crossing the carbon 386 ppm level. These fast temperature rises will create an additional climate momentum factor. This means that what used to happen over centuries will now occur over decades.

The climate will be like a runaway train going down a hill without brakes, getting faster and faster as it travels.

As the weather gets more extreme and dangerous  – and more people lose their homes, crops, and livelihood to stronger and stronger hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires, drought, extreme heat and cold, sea level rise, crop failures, famine, and new diseases, – the consequences of escalating global warming will increase, if not slowed down.

The West Antarctic ice sheet is melting more rapidly than previously expected. A study funded by NASA and the European Space Agency concludes that losses from the continent have tripled since 2012, with 180 billion tonnes of ice pouring into the ocean yearly. Scientists fear the ice sheet could collapse, leading to rising sea levels which would have disastrous consequences for low-lying cities.

Climate change will cut into your personal, business, and national budgets. It will change your life negatively, affecting your future plans, and your children may not have a future. It will trigger economic, political, and social chaos in our lifetimes and bring about the extinction of half of humanity by mid-century. Many people will migrate to reduce suffering and to survive longer.

Climate change will impact our economy, health, well-being, security, and quality of life. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the cost of climate and weather disasters in the United States last year totaled more than $165 billion – the third most costly year on record.

According to the Center for Global Development, in 2019, the G-20 countries had accumulated $29.7 trillion in climate debt. 

The Climate Clock’s deadline tells us that, at current rates of greenhouse gas emission, we have less than seven years left in our global “carbon budget,” which gives us a two-thirds chance of staying under the critical threshold of 1.5C of global warming.

SOLUTIONS AND PROBLEMS 

The people who created this problem are not the ones with the solutions.

According to the IPCC, we have the knowledge, money, technology, and affordable clean energy to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030. But the problem is the lack of political will and sufficient funding to make the rapid, widespread changes a reality.

“A litany of broken climate promises and a file of shame cataloging the empty pledges that have put the planet on a fast track to climate disaster,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. He accused government and business leaders of lying as they say one thing but do another when meeting climate goals.

The world’s 20 largest economies spend more than $450 billion annually subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Governments must stop supporting the fossil fuel industry and quickly move to renewable energy. 

“Solar energy and wind are cheaper than fossil fuels and work at the required scales. If we take real action soon, we might still be able to avoid catastrophic climate change,” Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with NOAA, said.

Trees and forests are our front-line troops in removing carbon from the atmosphere and producing oxygen. But again, we see the problem of greedy land developers cutting down trees and forests to build whatever makes them the most money. 

In the age of climate change, trees and forests are essential for survival. Reforestation is the most cost-effective way to stop global warming.

Implement the Green New Deal now! We can’t wait any longer.

Rep. Alexandria Cortez Ocasio, Democrat from New York, introduced the Green New Deal in April 2021, and it’s stuck in committees.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-resolution/332

 We must permanently remove gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and ocean. Entrepreneurs are working on new technologies that suck CO2 from the air or prevent it from leaving smokestacks.

Develop more energy-efficient mass transportation vehicles and drive individual cars less to reduce CO2.

Open the Greenpeace link for more solutions:  https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/climate-change/solutions-climate-change/

There are many ways to slow global warming, but do we have the political and individual will to change our behavior?  

STOP KILLING AND JAILING ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS

For years, land, water, and forest protectors have been the first line of defense against the causes and impacts of climate breakdown. Time after time, they have challenged governments, politicians, and companies who give no thought to the consequence of climate change when they operate recklessly, destroying forests, wetlands, oceans, and biodiversity hotspots.

Agribusiness, oil, gas, and mining have been this conflict’s most significant industrial drivers – they cut down forests and pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. These are the sectors pushing us further into runaway climate change.

Around the world, 1,733 environmental activists have been killed trying to protect their land, forests, and resources. An unknown number have been imprisoned worldwide.

In Atlanta, Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran, an indigenous, non-binary environmental activist (pronouns they/them/their), opposed the destruction of 171 acres of forest to build a militarized police facility.

Teran created the Ambientalist (Environmental) Club at Florida State University, where they graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science degree. They studied ecological issues and the Climate Clock in Panama. 

They helped clean up after hurricanes on the coast and gave money to homeless people. They were non-violent, kind, and caring and only wanted to help the community.

On January 18, 2023, Teran was asleep in their tent when multi-police agencies raided a public park to remove all the forest defenders. Teran was shot 57 times by the Georgia State Patrol. They were sitting crossed-legged in their tent with their hands up when they died, according to the autopsy. The police blamed Teran for shooting first, but this has not been conclusively proven.

For two years, young environmental activists from Atlanta and other cities lived in the Weelaunee forest to protect it from destruction. The police arrested 42 ecological activists and charged them with domestic terrorism. This type of police repression is happening in other countries to environmental activists.

Teran was the first environmental activist assassinated by police in the United States. If humanity is to be saved, it will come from the younger generation, who know they may not have a future unless carbon dioxide is reduced soon.

It is the Greta Thunbergs of the world and all the young environmental activists –  that are pushing against the fossil fuel industry, deforestation of the planet, and the politicians that enable them – that will save the earth if that is still possible.

Governments, politicians, and corporate-owned police stop killing and arresting the best and brightest young people who resist state efforts to destroy forests and put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They are not “domestic terrorists.” They are the heroes who are saving Mother Earth.

Written by Gloria Tatum

Photos by unknown