Last week, BioScience published the "World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency." It's actually a nice piece of work – short, readable, to the point. In barely 4 pages, it concisely summarizes the fine mess we've gotten ourselves into. It also provides suggestions for actions to take to "lessen the worst effects." The suggestions also pull no punches:
- quickly implement massive energy efficiency and conservation practices and replace fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables and other cleaner sources of energy.... We should leave remaining stocks of fossil fuels in the ground.
- promptly reduce the emissions of short-lived climate pollutants, including methane, black carbon, and hydrofluorocarbons.
- Protect and restore Earth's ecosystems.
- Eat mostly plant-based foods while reducing the global consumption of animal products.
- Curtail excessive extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems, driven by economic growth, to maintain long-term sustainability of the biosphere.
- Stabilize the world population within a framework that ensures social integrity.
Since the general populace always listens to the scientists, we should be able to accomplish all of this somewhere before the 2020 election.
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