Around 50 years ago, our rulers chose to begin a massive project, essentially conducting a unique scientific experiment, one with potentially foreseen but possibly unpredictable outcomes.

They decided to go all out in (1) extracting fuels buried deep in the Earth, energy from the sun stored via photosynthesis and animal metabolism over a span of 500 million years as coal, oil, and gas, and then (2) burning all of this they could find in the brief period of a few decades.

Our rulers were warned by scientists that their project involved serious risk, but they figured the power they could gain and the money they could make was worth any cost. They didn't care about the negative consequences, and/or foolishly believed that future technologies (still a fantasy in the year 2024) would somehow be able to fix whatever problems their actions caused.

And now, guess what — we're seeing signs that this experiment might be out of control. Feedback loops are kicking in, causing "natural" emissions which could trigger cascading effects, breaking down the ecosystem. It also appears that Earth's climate is more sensitive to greenhouse gases than first believed. Yet our rulers *still* continue to recklessly burn fossil fuels, always drilling and fracking for more, hungry for power and compelled by greed.

#History #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Here's a reminder of where we are now compared to where we need to be.

As mentioned in my previous post (https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/112671714655278802), fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions are at record highs. Yet scientists have repeatedly warned that we *must* rapidly reduce emissions or face climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse.

Look at the second graph below. We should have taken action years ago. By 2030, our emissions need to be 48% lower than in 2019. But instead, they keep going up, year after year. We're already halfway to 2030 and have made zero progress.

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual