Climate Crisis: 11,000 Scientists Warn of 'Untold Suffering'

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Tue Nov 5, 2019, 04:40 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: The Guardian

Statement sets out 'vital signs' as indicators of magnitude of the climate emergency. Most countries' climate plans 'totally inadequate' - experts. The world's people face "untold suffering due to the climate crisis" unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.

"We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency," it states. "To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems."

There is no time to lose, the scientists say: "The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity."

The statement is published in the journal BioScience on the 40th anniversary of the first world climate conference, which was held in Geneva in 1979. The statement was a collaboration of dozens of scientists and endorsed by further 11,000 from 153 nations. The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction and slashing meat eating...


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering

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"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to look at the graphs and know things are going wrong," said Newsome. "But it is not too late."

They set out a series of urgently needed actions:
- Use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use
- Stabilise global population - currently growing by 200,000 people a day - using ethical approaches such as longer education for girls
- End the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2
- Eat mostly plants and less meat, and reduce food waste
- Shift economic goals away from GDP growth

"The good news is that such transformative change, with social and economic justice for all, promises far greater human well-being than does business as usual," the scientists said. The recent surge of concern was encouraging, they added, from the global school strikes to lawsuits against polluters and some nations and businesses starting to respond.

In 2017 a warning of the dangers of pollution and a looming mass extinction of wildlife on Earth, also led by Ripple, was published. It was supported by more than 15,000 scientists and read out in parliaments from Canada to Israel. It came 25 years after the original 1992 "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity": "A great change in our stewardship of the Earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided."

*'Untold human suffering': 11,000 scientists from across world unite to declare global climate emergency. 'Despite 40 years of major global negotiations, we conduct business as usual and have failed to address this crisis,' group says.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-emergency-scientists-emissions-letter-climate-change-a9185786.html

- World Scientists Declare Climate Emergency, Warn of 'Untold 'Human Suffering.' Dr. Thomas Newsome, University of Sydney, Australia. Declaration endorsed by more than 11,000 signatories. A paper published in BioScience has outlined six steps humanity needs to take to reduce the impact of the emerging climate crisis. Dr Thomas Newsome, a co-author of the paper, says scientists have a moral obligation to warn of any great threat.

Nov. 6, 2019. Scientists declare climate emergency. A global team of scientists including Dr Thomas Newsome at the University of Sydney and international colleagues has warned that "untold human suffering" is unavoidable without deep and lasting shifts in human activities that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and other factors related to climate change.

The declaration is based on scientific analysis of more than 40 years of publicly available data covering a broad range of measures, including energy use, surface temperature, population growth, land clearing, deforestation, polar ice mass, fertility rates, gross domestic product and carbon emissions. "Scientists have a moral obligation to warn humanity of any great threat," said Dr Newsome from the School of Life and Environment Sciences. "From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emergency."

In a paper published today in BioScience, the authors from the University of Sydney, Oregon State University, University of Cape Town and Tufts University, along with more than 11,000 scientist signatories from 153 countries, declare a climate emergency, present data showing trends as benchmarks against which to measure progress and outline six areas of action to mitigate the worst effects of a human-induced climate change...
https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2019/11/06/world-scientists-declare-climate-emergency.html

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread appalachiablue.

[appalachiablue]

7. Sure UJ. The Title should read, 'Untold HUMAN Suffering' from

the direct quote. The truth since humans caused this!

[Traildogbob]

2. To the end of times wacks

Pretty damn sure God made a point of saying suicide is a major sin. He also said destroying his earth was unforgivable. So destroying earth, killing billions, yourself AND your damn children to speed up a a trip to paradise may well offer a different reception at the gates. Satan, ya gonna need a bigger boat.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. "God made a point of saying suicide is a major sin"

The Catholic Church has said that, but can you point to any evidence that they weren't just acting on their own?

[Traildogbob]

4. Just teachings from Lutheran Church

Can't really find hard evidence of anything in the majic book. Just hearsay from second hand accounts. So it must be a lie, according to GOP evidence rules. So go ahead, take your life, and your children's by poisoning the entire planet for greed. Trumps preachers all approve. All God's grand plan. Mansions, virgins and streets of gold await. Live like a Romney eternally. Don't waste another second here on hell. GOP will keep a steady stream of migrant teenage virgins after the first 80 get used.

[Polybius]

11. My guess is that it falls under "Thou shall not kill"

The Catholic church took it literally, although I believe they give exceptions in war and self-defense.

[atreides1]

12. Kind of.

In the fifth century, St. Augustine wrote the book The City of God, in it making Christianity's first overall condemnation of suicide. His biblical justification for this was the interpretation of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill", as he sees the omission of "thy neighbor", which is included in "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor", to mean that the killing of oneself is not allowed either. The rest of his reasons were from Plato's Phaedo.

It began with one mans interpretation...

In the sixth century AD, suicide became a secular crime and began to be viewed as sinful. In 1533, those who committed suicide while accused of a crime were denied a Christian burial. In 1562, all suicides were punished in this way. In 1693, even attempted suicide became an ecclesiastical crime, which could be punished by excommunication, with civil consequences following. In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas denounced suicide as an act against God and as a sin for which one could not repent. Civil and criminal laws were enacted to discourage suicide, and as well as degrading the body rather than permitting a normal burial, property and possessions of the suicides and their families were confiscated.

Commit suicide and the church takes property and possessions from your family...talk about a racket!!!

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. Yeah, no kidding. And the possessions of family. Wow.

That's FUBAR.

[Bayard]

5. One of the main reasons we have to dump tRump

Doesn't believe in climate change, and is hellbent on destroying as much of the environment as possible.

11,000 scientists? They are all obviously Never tRumpers!

[bronxiteforever]

6. Kick and recommend.

[ffr]

8. Billions will die, without question. The food/water supply will be one of the main factors.

The good news, if you can call it that, will be that millions will die fairly quickly from wars.

[Javaman]

9. it's already happening. another few years of the current "salad days" before it truly kicks in...1

with negative feed back. then all bets are off.

my only hope is that some if not most of the asshole right wing deniers in congress are alive to suffer along with us. fuck them.

[roamer65]

10. Eventually there will be only one choice left.

Population reduction.

We are almost there. If we stall even longer, the more draconian that “solution” will be...Soylent Green anyone?

[jayschool2013]

13. Trump's policies finally make sense, in context

When someone explains to him that his policies will result in "untold suffering," Twitler feels a sense of accomplishment, and President Miller pats him on the back.

[erronis]

16. The policies also make sense if they believe They, The Chosen Ones, will survive

in their walled-in gardens.

So many great writers have laid bare the fallacies in this approach. They may get a few more years while the planet rots but their rot is coming too.

[appalachiablue]

14. Daily Kos article on this has some interesting COMMENTS:

"You seem to forget, Human civilization as it exists can collapse due to loss of power in as short a time as a few weeks. Humans are no longer self-sufficient. Tech and reliance on cheap energy have made us dependent on it.

> In a couple generations, we have gone from humans who could live off the land, to humans who barely know what a hammer is. Humanity has never been more fragile than now."

More, https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/11/5/1897398/-Apocalypse-Pretty-Soon?utm_campaign=recent

[yaesu]

15. months of relentless rain, temps averaging 20 deg colder than normal, I think the suffering has

begun here, much of the land around here has turned into useless swamp.

[BlueJac]

17. K&R

[Kurt V.]

18. Fertility rates have been dropping world wide for decades, as women have gained more agency.

It's the other points that need immediate attention.

[Ponietz]

19. Plant trees!

[appalachiablue]

23. Yes, trees- lots and lots!

[The_jackalope]

21. A series of urgently needed actions

- Use energy far more efficiently and apply strong carbon taxes to cut fossil fuel use
- Stabilise global population - currently growing by 200,000 people a day - using ethical approaches such as longer education for girls
- End the destruction of nature and restore forests and mangroves to absorb CO2
- Eat mostly plants and less meat, and reduce food waste
- Shift economic goals away from GDP growth

Now there is a realistic set of goals...
We'll get right on that.
Or not.

[The_jackalope]

22. As long as the population levels remain this high, the damage will continue.

If simply because we all need to be fed, clothed, housed and protected from the elements. That alone will have enough impact on the biosphere to ensure an eventual fragmentation and collapse of techno-industrial civilization, and a correction of our population levels.

According to some research I did about five years ago, an intact planetary biosphere could probably maintain a stable human population of about 30 million hunter-foragers indefinitely. A stable population of two or three hundred million hunter-foragers could probably be maintained for several tens of thousands of years.

But there are four problems - there are well over seven billion of us; our population is growing at a steady rate of almost 80 million per year (even as the population growth rate declines due to the expansion); we far harder on the biosphere than hunter-foragers due to our energy-driven activities; and the biosphere is no longer intact.

On average, each modern human has the same impact on the biosphere as 25 hunter foragers, and an average Americans has the same impact as about 80 of our distant ancestors. Our current population has the same impact on the biosphere as 200 billion hunter-foragers. And we add the equivalent of two billion more every year. On a planet with a damaged biosphere, the increasing damage of such growth is well beyond the ability of education or legislation to mitigate, and it has been for over 100 years.

If we want to prepare for what's coming , we need to think in terms of adaptation rather than mitigation.

In my opinion, however, we are already far over the precipice. It's time that each of us look to our conscience and do whatever we think is right.

[roamer65]

24. I'm watching Inside Story on AlJazeera right now.

Three panelists and none of them will come out and say the truth. One guy went all mealy mouthed, one woman from from the developing world tried to blame the United States when asked about population reduction.

Less people, less CO2 emission. How simple can this be??????

[ck4829]

25. But *one* lobbyist said "Don't worry about it", so the jury's clearly still out on it