CUSJ’s JUSTnews editor Philip Symons has just published a new Discussion Paper from the July 10 2017 New York Times article on Climate Change, providing example after example of what awaits us. To summarize:
Doomsday
‘Over the past decades, our culture has gone apocalyptic with zombie movies and Mad Max dystopias, perhaps the collective result of displaced climate anxiety, and yet when it comes to contemplating real-world warming dangers, we suffer from an incredible failure of imagination.’
Heat Death
‘Even if we meet the Paris goals of two degrees warming, cities like Karachi and Kolkata will become close to uninhabitable, annually encountering deadly heat waves like those that crippled them in 2015. At four degrees, the deadly European heat wave of 2003, which killed as many as 2,000 people a day, will be a normal summer. At six, … summer labor of any kind would become impossible in the lower Mississippi Valley, … heat stress in New York City would exceed that of present-day Bahrain, one of the planet’s hottest spots, and the temperature in Bahrain “would induce hyperthermia in even sleeping humans.”’
The End of Food
People are already starving in many places on Earth as I write this… consider that climate change will cause heat-induced declines in crop yields, and of course drought. Suddenly feeling peckish? Get yourself a sandwich and read on.
Climate Plagues
Disease-causing bacteria, until now safely encased in ice, will be unleashed on the world, and plague-carrying mosquitos will reproduce ever faster as the temperature rises.
Unbreathable Air
Hot air will impede our ability to think (which, based on our politician’s response to climate change, is already less than stellar)… increasing pollution will result in millions of deaths.
Perpetual War
As the world gets hotter, humanimals will get madder. They are already quite mad, in both senses of the word. War will ensue.
Permanent Economic Collapse
Ironically, the failure to address climate change will cost us. Because of fossil capitalism, we ourselves may end up as fossils (maybe clutching a handful of bills).
Poisoned Oceans
All life comes from the sea. The sea will die.
The Great Filter
We find it impossible to grasp any of this. And yet, hope is a moral imperative. You and I have to keep on trying.
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