Hans-Peter Plag had a dialog with ChatGPT (Version of March 2023) on the planetary emergency. ChatGPT agreed that "There is no doubt that we are facing a planetary emergency caused by a combination of environmental crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, air and water pollution, and the depletion of natural resources. The impacts of these crises are already being felt by many people around the world, and they are expected to worsen in the coming decades." The full dialog is available here.
In his article “A Plan for Human Survival” Julian Cribb concludes “The Earth is a lifeboat, sinking under the pressures of overcrowding and demand. We either row it together – or we go down together. The choice is stark, and it is now before us.” He lists the urgent actions needed to avoid the sinking of the boat:
In the article “Many risky feedback loops amplify the need for climate action” by William Ripple and colleagues state that many feedback loops are significantly increase the global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Since not all of these feedbacks are fully accounted for in climate models, the mitigation pathways could fail to sufficiently limit the increase in global temperature. There is a danger that not considering the possibility of much larger increases than those predicted for different pathways could lead to failed mitigation and adaptation efforts.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published the report “1.5°C – DEAD OR ALIVE?THE RISKS TO TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE FROM REACHING AND BREACHING THE PARIS AGREEMENT GOAL” (pdf) by Laurie Laybourn, Henry Throp and Suzannah Sherman. “This paper is an output of the Cohort 2040 project, in collaboration with IPPR and Chatham House. This project seeks to better understand how the millennial and younger generations can provide the effective and transformational leadership needed to secure a better world even as environmental destabilisation grows.” This report underlines the urgency of action to reduce the existential threats for future generations: “The historical failure to sufficiently tackle the climate and ecological crisis could create consequences that challenge the ability of societies to tackle the root causes of this crisis. The vast changes needed to limit global heating and restore nature must be achieved in ever shorter periods of time.”
The book “How to Fix a Broken Planet: Advice for Surviving the 21st Century” by Julian Cribb makes a strong case about the planetary emergency modern civilization has caused, and identifies the urgent steps that are needed if a collapase is to be avoided. The threats faced are thoroughly analysed and the actions needed are clearly identified.
In the blog “Here comes the Catastrophocene ...,” Julian Cribb gives a concise and comprehensive summary of the mega-threats the planetary system and humanity are facing.
The Council for the Human Future, Common Home of Humanity, and MAHB started the petition “A call to action: mega-risks we face and the solutions we need” at the end of the conference “Delivering the Human Future” on March 21, 2021.
The Club of Rome declared a Planetary Emergency in 2019 and published the first edition The Planetary Emergency Plan. More information is available on the Planetary Emergency Page. The Club of Rome maintaince the Planetary Emergency Impact Hub and is part of the Planetary Emergency Partnership.
In his book “Apologies to the Grandchildren — Reflections on our Ecological Predicament, Its Deeper Causes, and its Political Consequences,” Ophuls states “Civilization is, by its very nature, a long-running Ponzi scheme. It lives by robbing nature and borrowing from the future, exploiting its hinterland until there is nothing left to exploit, after which it implodes. While it still lives, it generates a temporary and fictitious surplus that it uses to enrich and empower the few and to dispossess and dominate the many. Industrial civilization is the apotheosis and quintessence of this fatal course. A fortunate minority gains luxuries and freedoms galore, but only by slaughtering, poisoning, and exhausting creation. So we bequeath you a ruined planet that dooms you to a hardscrabble existence, or perhaps none at all.”
Code: AKIH8G
Enter the six-digit code given above:
Note that we can only answer your questions if you provide your email address. Your personal information will only be stored for the purpose of answering your questions or replying to your comment. No other use of your email address and/or name will be made.
Submit Form Cancel