Humanity may be facing tremendous peril and mass extinction in the coming decades as rising temperatures send the world into disarray, a recent climate change report warns.
The report, published by the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration in Australia on May 30, says climate change presents an existential threat to human civilization and will cause global famine and drought if no major actions to curb greenhouse emissions are enacted as soon as possible. If not, by 2050 — a mere 30 years from now — civilization as we know it could be upturned and brought to an end.
“A 2050 scenario is outlined in which accelerating climate-change impacts pose large negative consequences to humanity which might not be undone for centuries,” the researchers warn.
The report — which was endorsed by Admiral Chris Barrie, the former chief of the Australian military — predicts that in the coming decades, more than a billion people will have to be relocated due to extreme temperatures and flooding that will make areas of the planet uninhabitable.
“This policy paper looks at the existential climate-related security risk through a scenario set thirty years into the future,” Barrie writes. “[The researchers] have laid bare the unvarnished truth about the desperate situation humans, and our planet, are in, painting a disturbing picture of the real possibility that human life on earth may be on the way to extinction, in the most horrible way.”
In this alarming future, more than half of the world’s population will have to cope with 100 days of deadly heat every year. These temperatures will cause extreme weather conditions and spark wildfires, heatwaves, drought and inundation in North America.
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“This scenario provides a glimpse into a world of ‘outright chaos’ on a path to the end of human civilization and modern society as we have known it, in which the challenges to global security are simply overwhelming and political panic becomes the norm,” the report explains.
If action is not taken soon to offset global warming by 3 degrees Celsius, “planetary and human systems [wiil reach] a ‘point of no return’ by mid-century, in which the prospect of a largely uninhabitable Earth leads to the breakdown of nations and the international order.”
Once the tipping point is reached and this harrowing scenario becomes reality, the researchers believe there will be an increase in religious ferver and a permanent shift in the relationship of humankind to nature will take place.
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If humanity is to save itself and the countless ecosystems that sustain much of life on the planet, the reseachers call for a mobilzation of nations similar to what was seen in World War II.
“What can be done to avoid such a probable but catastrophic future?” the researchers ask. “It is clear from our preliminary scenario that dramatic action is required this decade if the ‘hothouse Earth’ scenario is to be avoided. To reduce this risk and protect human civilisation, a massive global mobilisation of resources is needed in the coming decade to build a zero-emissions industrial system and set in train the restoration of a safe climate.”
The paper is another in a long list of warnings the scienticifc community has presented to goverments in order to convince them of the seriousness of climate change and the importance of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Celebrities such as Bill Nye have also recently tried to raise awareness around the issue.
The scientist recently made a cameo in a May episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver to explain the complexities of carbon pricing and the importance of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez‘s Green New Deal, which aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, create jobs and secure clean air and water for all.