Scientists in their own words provide a compelling way to communicate often-complex ideas. So we have put together a small collection of useful quotes, with more to come.
You can find them at the Links & Info tab on the navigation bar. Here is a selection.
Societal collapse
Prof. HANS JOACHIM SCHELLNHUBER, August 2018
"Climate change is
now reaching the end-game, where very soon humanity must choose between
taking unprecedented action, or accepting that it has been left too late
and bear the consequences.”
Foreword to What Lies Beneath
breakthroughonline.org.au/whatliesbeneath
Dr JOELLE GERGIS
"It’s
extraordinary to realise that we are witnessing the great unravelling;
the beginning of the end of things. I honestly never thought I’d live to
see the start of what sometimes feels like the apocalypse. The Earth is
really struggling to maintain its equilibrium. It’s possible that we
are now seeing a cascade of tipping points lurching into action as the
momentum of instability takes hold and things start to come apart.”
Living with extremity as the new normal
griffithreview.com/articles/elemental-summer-a-season-of-chang
Future warming and what is safe
Prof. WILL STEFFEN
“It is clear from observations of climate
change-related impacts in Australia alone—the massive bushfires of the
2019-2020 Black Summer, the third mass bleaching of the Great Barrier
Reef in only five years, and long-term cool-season drying of the
country’s southeast agricultural zone—that even a 1.1°C temperature rise
has put us into a dangerous level of climate change.”
The Earth System, the Great Acceleration and the Anthropocene
link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-78795-0_2
Prof. NERILIE ABRAM
"People
and ecosystems are already suffering from the impacts of climate change
across the world, and these impacts will worsen unless we move quickly
to radically reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. But we've also let
this problem get to the point where rapid emission reductions alone
won't be enough—we also need to develop ways to remove large amounts of
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to preserve critical parts of the
Earth system while we still can."
Reducing carbon emissions not enough, expert warns
phys.org/news/2021-06-carbon-emissions-expert.html
Tipping points and cascades
Prof. TIMOTHY LENTON and colleagues
“The evidence from tipping points
alone suggests that we are in a state of planetary emergency: both the
risk and urgency of the situation are acute […] If damaging tipping
cascades can occur and a global tipping point cannot be ruled out, then
this is an existential threat to civilisation.”
Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against
Prof. JOHAN ROCKSTRÖM
“If
we go beyond 2°C it’s very likely that we have caused so many tipping
points that you have probably added another degree just through
self-reinforcing changes… The moment that the Earth system flips over
from being self-cooling — which it still is — to self-warming, that is
the moment that we lose control.”
COP26: Why The UN Climate Conference Matters Like Never Before
forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2021/10/22/with-one-week-till-cop26-climate-talks-experts-set-out-whats-at-stake/
Existential risk management
LUKE KEMP and colleagues
“Prudent
risk management requires consideration of the bad-to-worst-case
scenarios… We know that temperature rise has “fat tails”:
low-probability, high-impact extreme outcomes. Climate damages are
likely to be nonlinear and result in an even larger tail. Too much is at
stake to refrain from examining high-impact low-likelihood scenarios.”
Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2108146119
Prof. HANS JOACHIM SCHELLNHUBER,
“When the issue is the survival of civilization is at stake, conventional means of analysis may become useless.”
'It’s nonlinearity - stupid!'
theecologist.org/2019/jan/03/its-nonlinearity-stupid
