“July has been the hottest month in human history and people around the world are suffering the consequences,” said Prof Piers Forster, of the University of Leeds, UK. “But this is what we expected at [this level] of warming. This will become the average summer in 10 years’ time unless the world cooperates and puts climate action top of the agenda.”
I’m sorry, but saying there’s a chance to stabilize temperatures or prevent current conditions from becoming the new normal is irresponsible science journalism and straight up irresponsible science. Current conditions are the new normal and we’re still pumping fuels.
Currently planned fossil fuel production vastly outpaces any climate goals. Impacts will become worse. They will not stabilize and they definitely won’t get better than they currently are. (Super simple reference document: https://productiongap.org/2021report/ )
There’s been zero discussion of canceling existing leases or restricting current extraction, let alone canceling and dealing with limits in production and available energy that would cause. There’s been zero discussion of reallocating green sources to ensure food and fertilizer production to reduce food shortages and help feed people as production of consumer goods would be scaled way back without rampant fossil fuel usage there to drive it. There’s been zero planning for what happens next.
We are driving headlong over a cliff.
We’re still discussing recycling which has been proved to almost never actually occur.
No one is shutting down wells and mines. We are actively planning for destruction and devastation on a global scale and a complete collapse of ecosystems. It’s fucking business as usual.
This guy, he’s at least being honest:
“Knowing that we will look back on today’s extreme events as mild relative to what lies in our future is truly mind-boggling and hopefully serves as a wake-up call,” said Dutton. “The speed at which we make this transition will define the future that we get.”
There is the option, which you are describing of securing food supply, scale down of useless consumption and a strong roll out of low carbon power sources. That can be done, but nobody actually in charge even comes close to doing that, however in theory it would be possible.