By Ben Aris in Berlin
<span contenteditable='false' style='height: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; display: block; z-inde>paper in December.
The team reported that the worst-case scenarios are being manifest “as an alarming and unprecedented succession of climate records are broken, causing profoundly distressing scenes of suffering to unfold. We are entering an unfamiliar domain regarding our climate crisis, a situation no one has ever witnessed firsthand in the history of humanity.”
The paper goes on to detail that 20 of the 35 planetary vital signs” are now showing record extremes. The data shows how the continued pursuit of “business as usual” has, ironically, led to unprecedented pressure on the Earth system, resulting in many climate-related variables entering “uncharted territory.”
Moreover, after a brief respite during the coronavirus pandemic, the three important GHGs – carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – all reached record levels in 2023. Moreover, the global average carbon dioxide concentration is now approximately 420 parts per million, which is far above the proposed planetary boundary of 350 parts per million.
And like the other researchers, the Oxford team also point to “a global decline in sulphur dioxide emissions as likely a contributing factor.”
“The effects of global warming are progressively more severe, and possibilities such as a worldwide societal breakdown are feasible and dangerously underexplored,” the Oxford paper says. “By the end of this century, an estimated 3bn to 6bn individuals – approximately one-third to one-half of the global population – might find themselves confined beyond the liveable region, encountering severe heat, limited food availability, and elevated mortality rates because of the effects of climate change. Big problems need big solutions. Therefore, we must shift our perspective on the climate emergency from being just an isolated environmental issue to a systemic, existential threat.”
