What should be our collective response to Earthâs newest phase of accelerated warming? What might we do, as individuals? Dr. Guy McPherson, a conservation biologist has been warning all who would listen that the existing economic model would lead to civilization's collapse and human extinction resulting from loss of habitat due to extreme weather events.
It is not a message that many want to hear yet some find it liberating from the "prison of Civilization" and are choosing to pursue what they love, understanding that the processes now under way are no longer reversible. Intellectually we know of past collapsed civilizations and five previous mass extinctions. But the ability to incorporate that knowledge, that we too are vulnerable, that we could be next, into rational social behavior is in conflict with Capitalism's utopian demand for unlimited growth and the commodification of all life and the Planet it self.
He mentions scientist who have raised alarm, based on their observations, about trapped and frozen methane stability only to be shunned by the establishment managers and theoretical modelers. At issue, their increasing concern of a potential, sudden 50 GT methane release, doubling current levels. Also discussed, the global dimming that results from aerosols dumped into the atmosphere from industrial activity and commercial air traffic. They are reflecting solar energy while adding to the heat trapping gasses. Remove that umbrella effect and heating goes up rapidly; "5000 aircraft in the sky at any given time", "43,864 average daily flights handled by the FAA in 2016" alone (https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/by_the_numbers/), 1000,000 flights world wide daily and you get an idea of the scale of the bind he refers to.
McPherson offers some thoughts on what to do when facing a terminal diagnosis and why he is delivering it. Using data from Sam Carana at Arctic News, he has shortened his previous time line for collapse and extinction to less than 8 years.
He spoke in Chicago during his mid-west tour.
Crawford Attractions booking@crawfordsattractions.com First Unitarian Church of Chicago-Green Sanctuary Committee
Conservation Biologist Dr. Guy McPherson is the leading expert on the risk of near-term human extinction due to abrupt climate change (as seen with Bill Nye on National Geographic Explorer).
Dr. McPherson is an award-winning Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources & Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology at University of Arizona. He is internationally known for his synthesis of research on abrupt climate change, as fueled by irreversible, self reinforcing feedback loops in the climate system, triggered by human CO2 emissions. Dr. McPherson has written a dozen books on the environment. https://guymcpherson.com/2017/07/love-etc/
McPherson mentions Civilization being a "heat engine". For how that leads to collapse see: https://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/tag/tim-garrett/
Update- Derick Jensen's article in response to an article in the New York Times âBuilding an Ark for the Anthropoceneâ. https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/18/endangered-species-dont-need-an-ark-they-need-a-living-planet/
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