PLANETARY CRISIS
“Tell the truth” is Extinction Rebellion's first demand. And the truth is, we’re in the middle of a climate and ecological emergency that undermines the natural systems on which our society relies. As rivers warm and shrink, we lack water for factory-farming, nuclear plants cannot be cooled, and barges cannot carry raw materials to factories and grains to ports. Only by committing to science and truth, no matter how hard, can we address the world’s emergency and its underlying causes.
We’re Running Out of Time
Scientists agree that we must keep global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. We’re already at +1.1°C. Without urgent action our children will grow up in a devastated world.
Small Increases Really Matter
A 1.5°C increase will destroy, for example, 70%-90% of coral reefs. At 2.0°C, we’ll see drastic increases in extreme weather—stronger tropical storms, longer droughts, heavier downpours, and hotter heatwaves.
Keira Knightley teamed up with Extinction Rebellion to narrate an animated explanation of The Climate Emergency (2:30)
David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, on what happens if we don’t act soon (3:57). Via The Years Project.
We’re Not Doing Enough
Even if every country delivers on all their current promises to reduce emissions, we’re heading for warming of over 3°C by 2100. To stay under 2°C warming, we demand massive action to reduce emissions now.
Source: Climate Action Tracker, Dec 2019
If We Don’t Respond Right Now
The Climate and Ecological Emergency will be out of control very soon. The hotter it gets, the higher the risk of triggering irreversible feedbacks.
Mass Extinction
We depend on the natural world and biodiversity to survive. This is the Ecological Crisis: our planet’s 6th mass extinction is now underway.
Food Shortages
Loss of pollinators happening now threatens food supply. Staple crops like wheat are already harmed by changing weather patterns.
Water Shortages
By 2050, the UN predicts 5 billion people—about half the world’s predicted population—will suffer water shortages for at least one month per year.
Extreme Weather
A 4°C rise in temperature will expose 74% of people to deadly heat. Flooding, wildfires, and storms will kill many more.
Disease
Higher temperature and resulting increases in poverty will spread disease, expanding the range for diseases like malaria and dengue fever and putting hundreds of millions at risk.
Forced Migration
The Emergency will drive people from homes beyond anything in human history. The UN expects 200 million to 1 billion climate refugees by 2050 (compared to 65 million in 2017).
War & CONFLICT
With resources scarce and societies under increasing environmental stress, the likelihood of war—including nuclear war—and other conflicts will increase.
Societal Collapse
Combined escalation of all of these disasters puts society itself under threat. In the words of naturalist David Attenborough, “The collapse of our civilization is on the horizon.”
MORE ON THE PROBLEM
Our current system can’t protect us from the crises to come, because its very structure creates and then ignores them. The extremely short-term incentives of our key institutions — corporations and governments, which respectively function on quarterly profits and periodic elections, disregard the long-term dangers to our survival. This system is committed to stealing from future generations to sustain a lifestyle that primarily benefits the few (the so-called “one percent”).
Here is the state of the world right now:
The economy is structured to move more power to fewer people, and they’re getting richer and their influence on government stronger;
It is based on the spread of excessive debt; this needs constant economic growth to cover interest payments, which ravages a finite planet;
The system is built on corruption, where system-wide abuses are supported by offshore tax havens;
Many communities pay the price of deep inequality and injustice (e.g. refugees, asylum seekers, land defenders, water protectors);
The system pushes us – individuals, communities and nations – into competition over cooperation, favoring individualism over community;
Although few of us feel comfortable in this system, most collude with it in some way, often out of fear, forgetting our interdependence as humans and our utter reliance on nature for our lives.
Our focus now isn’t to cast blame, yet destructive power must be stopped. We have to change this system, in support of the most basic of universal values: the right to life.