More green insanity: "Scientists tip 2025 for possible planetary collapse...we need to drastically lower our population very quickly...Folks like us [developed nations] have to be forced to be materially poorer..."

Scientists tip 2025 for possible planetary collapse

Based on an evaluation of more than 1,000 previous studies, a new meta-review by an international group of 18 scientists suggests the Earth is perilously close to a tipping point where resource consumption, ecosystem degradation, climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth will trigger massive changes in the biosphere.

"The last tipping point in Earth's history occurred about 12,000 years ago when the planet went from being in the age of glaciers, which previously lasted 100,000 years, to being in its current interglacial state. Once that tipping point was reached, the most extreme biological changes leading to our current state occurred within only 1,000 years. That's like going from a baby to an adult state in less than a year," explains Arne Mooers, professor of biodiversity at Simon Fraser University and one of the paper's authors. "Importantly, the planet is changing even faster now. The odds are very high that the next global state change will be extremely disruptive to our civilization."

The work, appearing in Nature, reads somewhat like the screenplay for a disaster movie, with the authors making urgent calls for unified global action. "Humans have not done anything really important to stave off the worst because the social structures for doing something just aren't there," said Mooers. "My colleagues who study climate-induced changes through the Earth's history are more than pretty worried. In fact, some are terrified."

...Mooers is more blunt, saying that "society globally has to collectively decide that we need to drastically lower our population very quickly. More of us need to move to optimal areas at higher density and let parts of the planet recover. Folks like us [developed nations] have to be forced to be materially poorer, at least in the short term. We also need to invest a lot more in creating technologies to produce and distribute food without eating up more land and wild species. It's a very tall order," he concludes.