Life after climate change?
Gentle reader,
May I share with you two things that have come across my desk this evening which have had a profound impact on me?
One is an 8-minute video by Oxfam about the life of a woman in rural Uganda facing the 'indescribable pain' of climate change.
The second is an article in the science journal Nature (brought to my attention by Duncan Green of Oxfam). It suggests that climate change is but one of a series of hurdles we must clear if our species is to survive.
Johan Rockström et al. have "tried to identify the Earth-system processes and associated thresholds which, if crossed, could generate unacceptable environmental change. We have found nine such processes for which we believe it is necessary to define planetary boundaries:
- climate change
- rate of biodiversity loss (terrestrial and marine)
- interference with the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles
- stratospheric ozone depletion
- ocean acidification
- global freshwater use
- change in land use
- chemical pollution; and
- atmospheric aerosol loading.
"Humanity may soon be approaching the boundaries for global freshwater use, change in land use, ocean acidification and interference with the global phosphorous cycle. Our analysis suggests that three of the Earth-system processes — climate change, rate of biodiversity loss and interference with the nitrogen cycle — have already transgressed their boundaries . . ."
