Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn

[Zorro]

A group of international scientists is sounding a global alarm, warning that population growth, climate change and environmental destruction are pushing Earth toward calamitous — and irreversible — biological changes.

In a paper published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature, 22 researchers from a variety of fields liken the human impact to global events eons ago that caused mass extinctions, permanently altering Earth's biosphere.

"Humans are now forcing another such transition, with the potential to transform Earth rapidly and irreversibly into a state unknown in human experience," wrote the authors, who are from the U.S., Europe, Canada and South America.

If current trends continue — exploding global population, rapidly rising temperatures and the clearance of more than 40% of Earth's surface for urban development or agriculture — the planet could reach a tipping point, they say.

More at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0607-global-tipping-20120607,0,4125302.story

[Gregorian]

1. What? They mentioned the P word.

Last edited Fri Jun 8, 2012, 07:57 PM - Edit history (1)

That's a fairly rare thing. Good for them. They obviously know what they're doing, and have connected the dots, AND are not afraid to say it.

edit- I dropped one of these-' and one of these-s.

[1000 Words]

2. 36

[jpbollma]

3. I know it's defeatist

but I hate even reading these stories since we know nothing will be done about it. Without the USA, China, and India taking bold action nothing will happen. Cavemen run our congress and we can't even get a transportation bill. So I guess, get ready to go over that tipping point.

[1000 Words]

12. 44

[handmade34]

4. I hate that

this is where we are and the masses are so ignorant of their part in it... by enabling the corporations to dictate their life choices

"...To avert a grim future, or at least make it less grim, the paper calls for significant reductions in world population growth and per-capita resource use, more efficient energy use, less reliance on fossil fuels and stepped-up efforts to protect the parts of Earth that have so far escaped human dominance..."

[truedelphi]

7. You know something - if this nation stopped its fighting

The endless wars, And its endless modernization of its military, there would be a whole lot of conservation going on.

What our military does every day of the week really makes mockery of a middle incomed family's abilities to contribute to stopping these destructive forces.

[Gregorian]

8. Absolutely.

But also, most people don't begin to realize their ability to conserve. The reason being, it amounts to "not doing". Not just jumping in the car. Not going on that vacation. And this is the true bottom line that is keeping us from ever having a chance of changing this situation. The planes still stream out of SFO every minute.

And in the numbers we're in now, simple conservation isn't enough. And certainly cannot solve some of the problems.

I used to be very upset about this, many years ago. Now it's like a post-Bush America. Pretty much a lost cause.

We're at 400 PPM of CO2 now. And even if we stop tomorrow, we're at that concentration for a long time.

But you're right. And I like the notion of killing two birds with one stone. Wouldn't it be nice. My guess has always been that at some point, there is going to be a realization, and a resultant crash course to try and save ourselves. At which point war will most likely be abandoned in that state of panic. No one knows. It could be a slow, smouldering wreck that leaves us sitting in a heap of ashes, with a very uninteresting world with which to live on. None of it looks pretty to me. I don't see beauty and diversity coming out of this mess people have made.

[truedelphi]

13. Thanks for relating your thoughts. I totally agree.

Still, your response was a surprise.

I am so used to some DU trolls coming aboard and saying that the military is necessary and doesn't really pollute anyway!

[Special Prosciuto]

5. ...I

think we are already there...

[turtlerescue1]

6. Darn, so much for an end via a simple quake.

[greiner3]

9. "Earth may be near tipping point, scientists warn..."

DUH!

[Magoo48]

10. It appears that humans, not to mention the rest of our fellow creatures, will need to adapt quickly.

The backside of peak oil will most likely have a profound impact on population. Climate change will cause population migrations. Of course, I won't get to see how it all shakes out.

I love our wonderous planet, and it saddens me to think that my kids and grand kids will not see it in at least as good of shape as I did.

I would argue that over population exacerbates almost every human problem. It may be that in the relatively near future lack of oil will override the will of religious zealots who, for their own twisted reasons, want unlimited human reproduction.

[handmade34]

11. something needs to be done

to terrify the masses... to scare the $#it out of them so they change their ways and change quickly! My kids will never see the world as I saw it

[FarCenter]

14. There is no reason to assume that human civilization won't come to an end

Quite a number of religions, e.g. Christianity and Norse mythology, foresee a definite end to humanity.

They are probably right.

The idea that humans will continue to progress or maintain a steady state indefinitely are of fairly recent origin, and they are likely not correct.