English references

By over-consuming our environment—and ecosystem stability—in the short-term, we are putting our planet’s long-term stability and capacity to provide for future generations in jeopardy.

The doughnut-shaped framework of social and planetary boundaries (the ‘Doughnut’) provides a concise visual assessment of progress towards the goal of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet1,2,3. Here we present a renewed Doughnut framework with a revised set of 35 indicators that monitor trends in social deprivation and ecological overshoot over the 2000–2022 period. Although global gross domestic product (GDP) has more than doubled, our median results show a modest achievement in reducing human deprivation that would have to accelerate fivefold to meet the needs of all people by 2030.

Passing 1.5ºC is now inevitable. Overshoot scenarios tell us that we can relatively safely pass this level but then bring temperatures back down again, but how realistic are they, and how safe?

Now that humans have overshot the carrying capacity of the planet, collapse is inevitable no matter what we do.

This research reinforces the scientific consensus that the only viable strategy to limit catastrophic climate change requires drastic and immediate emissions cuts. An important study was published last month in the journal Nature, titled “Overconfidence in climate overshoot.” While increasingly dire warnings of the catastrophic impacts of global climate change continue to be published by scientists, the findings of this new paper provide another stark reminder of the urgent necessity to limit global warming by immediately reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The net zero approach of the Paris agreement has become detached from reality as it increasingly relies on science fiction levels of speculative technology.

Annual Conference 2023 "THE FAILURE OF GREEN CAPITALISM: FINDINGS, OBJECTIONS, ALTERNATIVES"15 September 2023Chair: Sighard Neckel (Spokesperson DFG Humaniti...

Referring to the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping Earth from warming no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, the number has become a rallying cry for climate advocates and scientists, who say the goal is humanity’s best bet on avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes of climate change by the end of the century. Venturing even 0.5 degrees past that threshold could drastically increase the frequency and severity of extreme weather, biodiversity loss, famine and water scarcity, as well as make it more likely that tipping points accelerate warming further, climate scientists say.

Many pathways to stopping climate change involve overshooting 1.5°C temporarily. The latest synthesis of 34,000 references says that’s a bad idea.