Buckle up, it will get worse.
By how much is a human decision though. The bulk of coal, tar, oil, and gas are still in the the ground. There are forests yet standing. Cattle are the bulk of mammals.
We can choose to leave fossil fuels in the ground unburned. To manage forests to keep them around. To shift away from eating animals. Do those, and we can limit the damage.
Yes, we can choose to.
But those in power only care about money and power. And until they are dealt with or otherwise removed from said power, nothing is going to change.
We’ve already started to get change, even with the very limited and imperfect power that we have. Here’s what is happening in the US:
It’s a human decision as it’s humans who can make this decision.
However it’s a decision that only a very small minority of humans can do, most of us have no say in this.
Even if we hit all the reduction goals as they stand now worldwide. We’ll still deplete world oil and gas reservoirs between the century. The damage is done. Humanity made a decision about 120 years ago and we chose wrong. Even if we all died right now and all fossil fuel burning, industrial agriculture and extraction stopped all at once. It would still take the ecosphere a couple of centuries just to course correct, let alone return to the climate patterns of two centuries ago.
Let me tell you the quiet part out loud. Some rich countries individually might be hitting their climate goals. But worldwide overall we are way behind. So buckle up, it will get worse.
Has humanity our corporate overlords finally broken the climate?
“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.
Is this slowpoke news?
Until governments ban private jet travel, we just won’t see serious public support. People struggling economically will fight back against taking on the brunt of the cuts.
Nobody actually wants to cut their carbon footprint, including well-meaning wealthy who advocate for change.
We’re collectively in a heartbreaking devastating mess.