tirsdag 7. februar 2012

Climate change post 3: Why the fuss?

When some confused old guy with a long beard stands on the street corner shouting, "The end is neigh!" most of us would just walk away with a bemused chuckle. However, when the world's leading climate scientists start writing this in peer-reviewed journals, it might just be time to start taking notice.

There is a general consensus that 6 degrees of warming constitutes a mass extinction event, wiping out 90% or more of all life. Yes, I know, this sounds totally crazy and farfetched, but the scientists have spoken (in their boring and objective kind of way).

Luckily 6 degrees is still far away (we are at 0.6 degrees now), but the problem is that once we cross a 2-3 degrees threshold, the planet itself might start marching unstoppably towards 6 degrees and beyond…

Get a copy of "Six degrees" by Mark Lynas – a highly readable, yet soundly scientific, global wake-up call.