Guy McPherson: Climate Change and the Debate on Near Term Extinction of Humans and all Life on Earth
summer series 2020
“To put it simply, our fate as a species is sealed. We’re headed for extinction in the very near term despite warnings dating more than 150 years. It’s a tragic tale. And, as foretold by evolutionary biologist George C. Williams, our species hardly made a squeak as the hammer dropped.” – Guy McPherson [1]
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For nearly forty years there have been warnings raised by prominent experts that the rising temperatures due to greenhouse gas warming threatens our future. [2]
Despite the formation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988, the assembly of nations at the earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, all the way up to the Paris Accord in 2015, the world continues to pollute and the temperature continues to rise.[3]
Recently in the fall of 2018, ‘The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C’ got tons of exposure in the mainstream news and prognosticated that allowing a rise of more than 1.5°C would result in an elevated risk of “long-lasting or irreversible changes, such as the loss of some ecosystems.” It said , “Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching ‘net zero’ around 2050.” [4][5]
But the worst of these “alarming” statistics see the human species condemned to life on a degraded planet by the year 2100, or even 2050. What you rarely hear is the warning that the changes of abrupt climate change could deny organisms of a habitat in as soon as five years, which could mean the end of the human species, and shortly thereafter, possibly every other organism on this great blue globe. What’s more, it is now simply too late for the human species to reverse the two and a half century course industry fueled by carbon energy. [6][7]
In other words, ‘Time’s up!’
One of the few scientists who came to this conclusion discovered it almost twenty years ago. He has been quoting the refereed journal literature and consequently seems to have been shut out by his peers. Yet, he is learning to see in the daunting time-frame that life, while it lasts, is glorious and free, with heroes stepping to the challenge of life as this play comes to a close.
Guy McPherson speaks with us for the entire program of the Global Research News Hour. Our topics this week include the threat to the poles of a ‘blue ice’ moment, the aerosol masking effect, the collapse of modern economy contributing to a swift rise in temperature, the refusal of contemporary society to address the threat and much, much more!
Guy McPherson was 49 when he became professor emeritus of natural resources and ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. Guy taught and conducted research for more than twenty award-winning years at Texas A&M University, University of Arizona, University of California (Berkeley), Southern Utah University, and Grinnell College. He has produced a dozen books and hundreds of articles. He currently produces and hosts the radio program ‘Nature Bats Last’ and currently resides in Maitland, a suburb of Orlando, Florida.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .
Notes:
1) https://guymcpherson.com/extinction_foretold_extinction_ignored/
2) William j Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M Newsome, Phoebe Barnard, William R Moomaw (November 5, 2019) ‘Corrigendum: World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency’, BioScience, Volume 70, Issue 1, January 2020, Page 100; https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/8/56108
3) ibid
4) Matthew Taylor, Matthew Weaver, and Helen Davidson (Oct 8, 2018), ‘IPCC Urgent Climate Change Report Calls for urgent Action to Phase Out Fossil Fuels – As it Happened’, The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2018/oct/08/ipcc-climate-change-report-urgent-action-fossil-fuels-live
5) Brandon Miller and Jay Croft (Oct 8, 2018) ‘Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn’, CNN; https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/07/world/climate-change-new-ipcc-report-wxc/index.html
6) Summary for Policymakers of IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C approved by governments (October 8, 2018)
7) https://www.livescience.com/65633-climate-change-dooms-humans-by-2050.html
