Rollie, thank you for putting it all “in one place”…we need to see these lists to understand clearly, the overwhelming toll we are taking on our mother earth, and how the fact that she is working overtime to keep our planet livable for us, may come to an end, when we are “not looking”…As well though, I appreciate all the positive comments and articles you share that show how much progress we are making. My hope and why I don’t give up is because I know that change too can happen quickly in the opposite direction. We don’t know how fast our planet will heal if we give her a change; nor do we know which one of us, or of our children will be able to help create the “disrupting” moves we need to jump start our sustainable future..perhaps it has already begun…thank you..xo
Generally I do try to focus on positive articles. There are so many positive “climate actions” that it’s hard to keep track. That said, we must continually remind ourselves and others that the challenge we face is monumental. It will take millions of changes and these must occur quickly. And I do hold out the hope that “disruptive positive change” can happen. It happens all the time. I did a piece awhile back about Tony Seba’s disruptive technologies. Tony uses the advent of the cell phone and the digital camera as examples of disruptive change. Both of these revolutionized the way we communicate and the way we take photos. He claims that the same is happening right now with electric vehicles.
Great article. Re “political will is weakening”, even if it weren’t weakening, as Tim Garrett, atmospheric physicist at the University of Utah, repeatedly points out in his “frightening” research findings, Civilization is caught in a double-bind between global collapse and CO2 levels of 1200 ppm. Moreover, there is no way out. His research papers date from about 2009. His work is never mentioned by politicians, mainstream media, environmental NGOs, and, most surprisingly of all, by other climate scientists.
Makes one wonder if his findings are being suppressed.
Here, in his own words, is the essence of his thesis —
“Effectively, it appears that civilization may be in a double-bind. If civilization does not collapse quickly this century, then CO2 levels will likely end up exceeding 1000 ppmv; but, if CO2 levels rise by this much, then the risk is that civilization will gradually tend towards collapse. With business-as-usual, by 2100 the world GDP would be 10 times higher than today and the atmospheric CO2 would be around 1200 ppm. … While growth must initially be positive for civilization to emerge, positive growth cannot be sustained forever. Civilization networks are always falling apart, and presumably in a world with finite resources, we will eventually lose the capacity to keep fixing them. Future loss of useable Land and Water is already in the pipeline from all prior carbon emissions, and CO2 emissions continue to rise unabated. Whether collapse comes sooner or later depends on the quantity of energy reserves available to support continued growth and the accumulated magnitude of externally imposed decay… Theoretical and numerical arguments suggest that when growth rates approach zero, civilization becomes fragile to such externalities as natural disasters, and the risk is for an accelerating collapse.”
Frank – thanks for your feedback and for sharing Tim Garrett’s material. You have mentioned him to me before (I think) but I must confess that I’ve not followed up. But I will this time.
The “damned if you do” and “damned if you don’t” scenario he presents is indeed frightening.
Rolly, the climate picture looks somewhat bleak especially when world governments are caught up in the wrangling of socio-economic squabbles.
Into the background of the environmental meltdown comes a new possible threat or boon. Which way it might go is a bit unpredictable at the moment. We already have artificial intelligence running things like Sriri, Alexa or Google Assistant, driverless cars and assembly Robots. And this intelligence is geared to specific narrow applications. But Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is on the way and likely to be a reality in 10 years. Sophia, the Hansen Robotics flagship model, is has already been made a citizen of Saudi Arabia. While this is largely symbolic Citizenship, Ben Goertzel her creator, is busy working with the Government of Malta to implement an AI strategy for all future Maltese development. China is also investing billions of dollars in AGI as are many militaries around the globe.
So how does this affect climate? It actually has the potential (at the moment), to make things much worse as the power resources required and batteries etc, are huge.
But then, in Ben Goertzel’mind, the future for people is to be somehow be enhanced Robotically. He himself, does not wish to die, so he has arranged for his body to be cryogenically frozen (upon death) until such time as medical advancements can bring him back, or more likely, that his brain can be incorporated into a robot that resembles him. In a future where AGI roams and rules the planet will a breathable atmosphere be required? Will animals be wanted? Will plant life have any purpose?
The AGI movement is growing at tangible speed. It is possible that the real agenda is not to save humanity, but to replace it with thinking, feeling, experiencing cyborgs?
https://youtu.be/BTnNJY52770
Certainly, a lot of money is going into Robotics and Artificial General Intelligence. If environmental collapse is our number one issue facing the world, one would think that if life as we know it we’re important, we would be focusing on eliminating that which is driving accelerated deterioration of life systems? Instead, we are developing artificial forms that can survive in a planet devoid of life.
Colette – Thank you for this expose on AI. You raise some very important issues. As it we need one more thing to add to the disturbing trends our planet is already subjected to.
One book you must read is Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. It follows his first book called Sapiens.
“Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow examines what might happen to the world when old myths are coupled with new godlike technologies, such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.”
Your comments are always appreciated from wherever you are.
Rollie, thank you for putting it all “in one place”…we need to see these lists to understand clearly, the overwhelming toll we are taking on our mother earth, and how the fact that she is working overtime to keep our planet livable for us, may come to an end, when we are “not looking”…As well though, I appreciate all the positive comments and articles you share that show how much progress we are making. My hope and why I don’t give up is because I know that change too can happen quickly in the opposite direction. We don’t know how fast our planet will heal if we give her a change; nor do we know which one of us, or of our children will be able to help create the “disrupting” moves we need to jump start our sustainable future..perhaps it has already begun…thank you..xo
Thank you for your feedback Harriet.
Generally I do try to focus on positive articles. There are so many positive “climate actions” that it’s hard to keep track. That said, we must continually remind ourselves and others that the challenge we face is monumental. It will take millions of changes and these must occur quickly. And I do hold out the hope that “disruptive positive change” can happen. It happens all the time. I did a piece awhile back about Tony Seba’s disruptive technologies. Tony uses the advent of the cell phone and the digital camera as examples of disruptive change. Both of these revolutionized the way we communicate and the way we take photos. He claims that the same is happening right now with electric vehicles.
I love working with ClimateMama.
Great article. Re “political will is weakening”, even if it weren’t weakening, as Tim Garrett, atmospheric physicist at the University of Utah, repeatedly points out in his “frightening” research findings, Civilization is caught in a double-bind between global collapse and CO2 levels of 1200 ppm. Moreover, there is no way out. His research papers date from about 2009. His work is never mentioned by politicians, mainstream media, environmental NGOs, and, most surprisingly of all, by other climate scientists.
Makes one wonder if his findings are being suppressed.
Here, in his own words, is the essence of his thesis —
“Effectively, it appears that civilization may be in a double-bind. If civilization does not collapse quickly this century, then CO2 levels will likely end up exceeding 1000 ppmv; but, if CO2 levels rise by this much, then the risk is that civilization will gradually tend towards collapse. With business-as-usual, by 2100 the world GDP would be 10 times higher than today and the atmospheric CO2 would be around 1200 ppm. … While growth must initially be positive for civilization to emerge, positive growth cannot be sustained forever. Civilization networks are always falling apart, and presumably in a world with finite resources, we will eventually lose the capacity to keep fixing them. Future loss of useable Land and Water is already in the pipeline from all prior carbon emissions, and CO2 emissions continue to rise unabated. Whether collapse comes sooner or later depends on the quantity of energy reserves available to support continued growth and the accumulated magnitude of externally imposed decay… Theoretical and numerical arguments suggest that when growth rates approach zero, civilization becomes fragile to such externalities as natural disasters, and the risk is for an accelerating collapse.”
Source Shortlink: https://wp.me/pO0No-4uc
Frank – thanks for your feedback and for sharing Tim Garrett’s material. You have mentioned him to me before (I think) but I must confess that I’ve not followed up. But I will this time.
The “damned if you do” and “damned if you don’t” scenario he presents is indeed frightening.
Rolly, the climate picture looks somewhat bleak especially when world governments are caught up in the wrangling of socio-economic squabbles.
Into the background of the environmental meltdown comes a new possible threat or boon. Which way it might go is a bit unpredictable at the moment. We already have artificial intelligence running things like Sriri, Alexa or Google Assistant, driverless cars and assembly Robots. And this intelligence is geared to specific narrow applications. But Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is on the way and likely to be a reality in 10 years. Sophia, the Hansen Robotics flagship model, is has already been made a citizen of Saudi Arabia. While this is largely symbolic Citizenship, Ben Goertzel her creator, is busy working with the Government of Malta to implement an AI strategy for all future Maltese development. China is also investing billions of dollars in AGI as are many militaries around the globe.
So how does this affect climate? It actually has the potential (at the moment), to make things much worse as the power resources required and batteries etc, are huge.
But then, in Ben Goertzel’mind, the future for people is to be somehow be enhanced Robotically. He himself, does not wish to die, so he has arranged for his body to be cryogenically frozen (upon death) until such time as medical advancements can bring him back, or more likely, that his brain can be incorporated into a robot that resembles him. In a future where AGI roams and rules the planet will a breathable atmosphere be required? Will animals be wanted? Will plant life have any purpose?
The AGI movement is growing at tangible speed. It is possible that the real agenda is not to save humanity, but to replace it with thinking, feeling, experiencing cyborgs?
https://youtu.be/BTnNJY52770
Certainly, a lot of money is going into Robotics and Artificial General Intelligence. If environmental collapse is our number one issue facing the world, one would think that if life as we know it we’re important, we would be focusing on eliminating that which is driving accelerated deterioration of life systems? Instead, we are developing artificial forms that can survive in a planet devoid of life.
Colette – Thank you for this expose on AI. You raise some very important issues. As it we need one more thing to add to the disturbing trends our planet is already subjected to.
One book you must read is Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. It follows his first book called Sapiens.
“Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow examines what might happen to the world when old myths are coupled with new godlike technologies, such as artificial intelligence and genetic engineering.”
Your comments are always appreciated from wherever you are.