By an extremely fortunate coincidence, the world urgently needs to invest trillions of dollars in decarbonization just when the global economy equally urgently needs a huge stimulus to get people back to work, says Mark Lynas.
To read the full column, see Project Syndicate.
It’s here! After three years of hard labour, the new Six Degrees is finally launched. Thanks to HarperCollins for publishing on both sides of the Atlantic! For those asking – yes, this is a fully original rewrite of the 2007 original Six Degrees… if you’re wondering whether the projections made back then still stand today, read on.
From the jacket:
Mark Lynas delivers a vital account of the future of our earth, and our civilisation, if current rates of global warming persist. And it’s only looking worse.
We are living in a climate emergency. But how much worse could it get? Will civilisation collapse? Are we already past the point of no return? What kind of future can our children expect? Rigorously cataloguing the very latest climate science, Mark Lynas explores the course we have set for Earth over the next century and beyond. Degree by terrifying degree, he charts the likely consequences of global heating and the ensuing climate catastrophe.
At one degree – the world we are already living in – vast wildfires scorch California and Australia, while monster hurricanes devastate coastal cities. At two degrees the Arctic ice cap melts away, and coral reefs disappear from the tropics. At three, the world begins to run out of food, threatening millions with starvation. At four, large areas of the globe are too hot for human habitation, erasing entire nations and turning billions into climate refugees. At five, the planet is warmer than for 55 million years, while at six degrees a mass extinction of unparalleled proportions sweeps the planet, even raising the threat of the end of all life on Earth.
These escalating consequences can still be avoided, but time is running out. We must largely stop burning fossil fuels within a decade if we are to save the coral reefs and the Arctic. If we fail, then we risk crossing tipping points that could push global climate chaos out of humanity’s control.
This book must not be ignored. It really is our final warning.
The most urgent climate challenge of the next two years is to get Donald Trump out of the White House. Unless that happens, there is no way to restore sanity to US climate policy. Four more years of Trump is unthinkable.
Therefore the most important climate plan is not the most eye-wateringly dramatic version of the Green New Deal, but the one that – as part of an overall winning strategy – stands the best chance of persuading the widest spectrum of American voters possible, and across political divides.
It won’t be easy, because climate change has become part of the culture wars, and many right-wing voters see climate denialism as a core part of their political identity.
Post for CNN.com Democratic town hall on climate change – full post here
Fresh from the latest disasters on Brexit, surely the last thing the UK needs is a state visit from the world’s provocateur-in-chief, Donald Trump.
Trump’s position on Brexit — bring it on — may be divisive, but his denialist and pro-coal view on global heating and the climate crisis is even more extreme and makes him particularly unwelcome at this moment in Britain.
The British parliament declared a ‘climate emergency’ in May, while a day later the government’s chief advisory committee on climate change recommended that the UK should aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
The wait is finally over… for more see my Books page.
If everyone in the world went vegan, it would solve both the greenhouse gas and biodiversity problems almost overnight. Evidence shows that if people adopted entirely plant-based diets, the planet could easily support a population of 7 billion while at the same time returning huge areas of land to natural ecosystems.
Unfortunately it’s not going to happen. In fact, the world is moving the other way. As developing countries emerge from poverty, they shift inexorably towards more meat and dairy-heavy diets.
So is all lost? Not necessarily. Veganism and vegetarianism are increasing in popularity in rich countries, driven by an awareness of the health, environmental and animal welfare benefits of eliminating meat. This demand reduction can be an important future contributor to more sustainable agriculture.
For the full piece please visit the Cornell Alliance for Science