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The world is about to enter a stage where a combination of circumstances, economic change and feedback loops are going to drive a rapid increase in the global warming process.
Far from restricting the increase in global temperature to 1.5% over pre-industrial levels, we face the prospect of a runaway system which is going to drive superheating, raise the sea levels and create a change that we can neither reverse nor control.
We, along with much life on the planet, may not survive.
Let's take a simple example. The increase in seasonal temperatures has driven summer temperatures to new highs. As a result in more and more developed nations air conditioning is being seen as a necessity. These run on electricity, which is created using fossil fuel to a greater or lesser extent in every country across the world. The greenhouse gases released by these electricity plants, plus the manufacturing emissions cost of the AC units themselves increase the rate of global warming.
As emerging economic powerhouses like China and India reach a level of prosperity where AC becomes within the reach of more than two billion people, two billion people will seek out AC, especially in light of the rocketing summer temperatures in these countries.
The rising global temperatures affect the polar caps. Ice reflects more of the sun's radiation back out to space than water and, especially, land. As greenhouse gases trap more of that radiation as heat, warming the earth's surface, the ice caps melt away. Less ice means less of the incoming radiation is reflected and the rate of global warming begins to spiral.
The melting ice caps have two significant effects. Dumping trillions of litres of fresh water into the seas changes their salt levels. Many saltwater species will not be able to adapt and will die off as a result. This directly affects the food chain. Secondly, and especially for the Antarctic ice cap, which mostly sits on land, those trillions of litres of ice melt will raise the sea levels and drown low lying land masses.
Finally, the increasing rate and ferocity of wildfires in places like the US and Australia - driven by incredibly hot, dry seasons and reduced rainfall - mean that millions of tons of carbon, safely trapped in trees, are released into the atmosphere, further speeding the warming of the planet.
We, along with much life on the planet, may not survive.
Let's take a simple example. The increase in seasonal temperatures has driven summer temperatures to new highs. As a result in more and more developed nations air conditioning is being seen as a necessity. These run on electricity, which is created using fossil fuel to a greater or lesser extent in every country across the world. The greenhouse gases released by these electricity plants, plus the manufacturing emissions cost of the AC units themselves increase the rate of global warming.
As emerging economic powerhouses like China and India reach a level of prosperity where AC becomes within the reach of more than two billion people, two billion people will seek out AC, especially in light of the rocketing summer temperatures in these countries.
The rising global temperatures affect the polar caps. Ice reflects more of the sun's radiation back out to space than water and, especially, land. As greenhouse gases trap more of that radiation as heat, warming the earth's surface, the ice caps melt away. Less ice means less of the incoming radiation is reflected and the rate of global warming begins to spiral.
The melting ice caps have two significant effects. Dumping trillions of litres of fresh water into the seas changes their salt levels. Many saltwater species will not be able to adapt and will die off as a result. This directly affects the food chain. Secondly, and especially for the Antarctic ice cap, which mostly sits on land, those trillions of litres of ice melt will raise the sea levels and drown low lying land masses.
Finally, the increasing rate and ferocity of wildfires in places like the US and Australia - driven by incredibly hot, dry seasons and reduced rainfall - mean that millions of tons of carbon, safely trapped in trees, are released into the atmosphere, further speeding the warming of the planet.
The spiral soon becomes something which is both completely irreversible and impossible to stop.
As long as we are unable to control our rampant, global scale consumerism; we cannot hope to prevent this particular wildfire burning out of control. The fear is that we have passed the point where we can stop the spiral from starting.
As long as we are unable to control our rampant, global scale consumerism; we cannot hope to prevent this particular wildfire burning out of control. The fear is that we have passed the point where we can stop the spiral from starting.
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