When it comes to global warming, we in India are actually witnessing the havoc it's wreaking first hand, with scorching temperatures across the country.
Unfortunately, not many can find it in themselves to really get mad about it, so the result is mostly business as usual. And that very state of mind could be the death of us.
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Right now, 10 of the hottest cities in the world are all in India, and you'd think we'd be desperate to fix that. However, none of us seem to be willing to actually get up and speed things along.
A think-tank in Melbourne, the Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, has just published an analytical report on the effects of climate change on human civilization. They describe climate change as "a near- to mid-term existential threat to human civilization". In fact, they even have a plausible scenario where, if we fail to act, it could mean the end of society as we know it in the next 30 years.
According to the think-tank, what we consider to be the most extreme outcomes of climate change are actually far more likely to occur than we believe. And yet, it's still impossible to quantify because they "fall outside the human experience of the last thousand years."
Basically, the report warns that our current trajectory of non-action interspersed with half-measures is completely ineffective. "Planetary and human systems [are] reaching a 'point of no return' by mid-century," the report reads, "in which the prospect of a largely uninhabitable Earth leads to the breakdown of nations and the international order."
NASA
The report indicates that the only way we could avoid this sort of apocalyptic end is by mobilizing forces to rally against climate change in a similar fashion to during World War II. At the time, every bodily able person was being drafted to war, and those at home were tasked with contributing to the war effort by either building munitions and military hardware or joining up as medical professionals and the like. Heck, even regular people not directly involved were encouraged to buy government war bonds in order to fund the military.
In the same way, we need to mobilise the whole world and rapidly focus on developing a zero-emissions industrial system, at least if we want to have a chance at reversing climate change and preserving our very ecosystem.
At our current trajectory, the report warns that we will likely lock into at least 3 degrees Celsius of a global temperature rise. This could in turn further amplify the other effects of global warming, like the melting of our polar ice caps, the bleaching of the coral reefs, and worse.
NASA
If that happens, we can expect a billion people to be forced out of their homes, as coastal regions are inundated by the ocean, or inland areas become inhospitable. Thanks to a scarcity of water, agriculture will collapse in a number of areas, leading to a global food crisis. Specifically, the report indicates that nation-states like the US and China would unravel and devolve into anarchy.
"A high-end 2050 scenario finds a world in social breakdown and outright chaos," says David Spratt, Breakthrough's research director. "But a short window of opportunity exists for an emergency, global mobilization of resources, in which the logistical and planning experiences of the national security sector could play a valuable role."