Author C.S Goldsmith Weighs in on the Climate Crisis and the Crucial Decade Ahead

The cost of combating Climate Change is projected to be 23 trillion dollars a year by 2050. For 30 trillion we could get to Carbon Neutral and avoid the extinction of 37 % of all plants and animals on the planet.

The cost of combating Climate Change is projected to be 23 trillion dollars a year by 2050. For 30 trillion we could get to Carbon Neutral and avoid the extinction of 37 % of all plants and animals on the planet.

Climate Change is an existential threat to humanity and we have just one decade left to put it in check.

Invisible, slow moving threats are the most dangerous. We are not hard-wired to stay focused on them, lose concentration and look for greater stimulus, so we move on; small increases in temperature year after year, simply bypass our fight or flight mechanism.

The World Health Organization has concluded that the rise in more infectious diseases like Zika,Sars,H1 N1, Ebola, and now the Corona virus are directly linked to Climate Change.We are much more vulnerable that we thought. If there is a silver lining in the Covid 19 Pandemic, it is that we have proven that we can dramatically change our living habits very quickly. We can actually curtail our pollution causing activities enough to start healing the planet. This could be a big part of the solution, to avoiding much bigger problems down the road.

Upsetting the fragile norms in the environment, even by just 1 to 3.5 degree Celsius, could start the dominos toppling that could lead to our extinction.

We are now firmly in the Anthropogenic (pollution caused by human activity) sixth extinction, with over one million species projected to go extinct by 2050. Computer models predict that we could lose one third of all mammals and thirty seven percent of all plants and animals by 2050 and that could include our own species by the end of this century. At least nine human like species are now extinct in the last 300,000 years. We are the only ones left.

According to Mathematicians from the University of Barcelona, there is a 13 % chance that we too will become extinct before the end of this century.

We are now less likely to die in a car accident than from a Climate Change related extinction event.

The tipping point is around 450 PPM of Co2 in the atmosphere. Beyond that point, we could face positive feedback loops that spiral temperatures higher and higher until they are outside of our threshold to survive.  We’ll reach 450 ppm of Co2 in just 11 years by 2032.

Adding in the other greenhouse gasses( GHG), like Methane and Nitrous Oxide and we are already at 454 ppm and continue to increase our combined GHG emissions by 4 ppm a year. Unfortunately for many species, we have already passed some irreversible tipping points.

In spite of the Paris Climate agreement, signed by 197 countries, we are still increasing our emissions. Forty five percent of the countries that signed onto the accord have already filed for exceptions to be able to pollute more than they agreed upon. We have only three years left before we exhaust the entire fossil fuel budget set by the Paris accord.

Growth at any cost and the refusal to enforce any reasonable reproductive limits has outstripped the planet’s carrying capacity; our ability to feed Earth’s growing population. We need 3 ½ planets the size of Earth, just to feed the 7 billion people we have now; and we are adding 160,000 more mouths to feed each and every day. Changes in weather patterns and increasing temperatures will cause a 5% decline in crop yields of Corn, Wheat, Soy and Rice by 2050.

In reality, we will most likely hit 3.2 to 3.7 degrees Celsius turning the world into a very hot, inhospitable and overcrowded planet. Eight to twelve degrees warmer is the threshold for our species to survive. We may reach 6 degrees Celsius or 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit degrees by the end of this century if we continue business as usual.

What can be done?
In final analysis there is nowhere to run.We are all in the same boat and nobody will be free from the impacts of this Climate Crisis.

There is still a chance to avoid the most dangerous consequences from Climate Change. This is our last decade to do so. We will need to shrink our economic activity and reign in our population growth; two paths that no political leader ever wants to discuss, but it would be better than doing it in crisis mode.

We have to slow down our ever expanding need to consume more and more. You cannot have forever growth on a finite planet with a finite amount of resources. It is not sustainable.

During the Corona virus, we slowed down everything but the essentials and from space they could see the pollution levels subside and the air clear on both coasts of the U.S. It’s absolute proof that we can do it if we have to. We could possibly save the 150,000 people that are dying now from climate change each year and that number is expected to double by 2030. Climate Change will force a hundred million people into extreme poverty by 2030, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and the University of Wisconsin.

The “Dooms Day Clock” is set at 12 seconds to midnight. The only way to reset the clock back again is to take positive action now on reducing the risks of extinction from Climate Change.

Can it be done? Absolutely, there is no question about it. Will we do it before it’s too late? That’s the big question.

“The Grand Action Plan”
We certainly have the right technology available now. We need to implement a good plan quickly to meet this tremendous challenge, before we run out of time.

The plan I propose is a simple and based on decades of research and backed up by science. It’s a solid, workable and affordable plan that if implemented aggressively, will get the job done. It will take a World Wide commitment and about 30 trillion dollars, or two years of what it is going to cost us anyway to combat the calamitous effects of climate change by 2050. For about 2.5 % of the worlds GDP for two years, we could save our planet and still have an Earth that we all would recognize and future generations could depend on.

We are going to need to build 30,000 Co2 extraction plants capable of extracting 1 million tons of Co2 per year.

By mitigating 30 billion tons a year of Co2 out of the 56 billion tons we emit annually, that would get us over a 50% reduction of Co2 and a lot closer to carbon neutral.

With a strong push toward alternative transportation, electric cars and renewable energy, we’ll get a lot closer to net zero emissions.

By using the Princeton’s 15 stabilization wedges, to ratchet down the remainder of our GHG emissions in the four major categories that are responsible for most all of our emissions, we will get down to carbon neutral.

Combine that with an aggressive reforestation and oceanic preservation program and we could actually get to carbon negative. However, it needs to happen before we get so far behind the Climate Crisis eight ball, that there is nothing we can do about it.

That is the “The Grand Action Plan” to save the planet for future generations. It is viable, workable and affordable plan that ironically would be very profitable.

These Co2 extraction plants are compellingly profitable and make some of the most important, high growth products that the world is going to need, like carbon fibers and the ultra low carbon fuel of the future.

With the help from some billionaires using their resources and influence, we could convince the politicians, The World Bank, United Nations, CEO’s and that along with significant grass roots support, could get the plan moving. Who knows? We may be able to all come together and solve the biggest of all problems. If not, I hear Mars is lovely this time of year.

C.S Goldsmith Author: “Uninhabitable a case for caution” Barnes & Noble: info,

Link:carbonneutraladvocates.com on “Uninhabitable a case for caution” and “The Grand Action Plan”.

Press Release: Earth Day, April, 22, 2020. Journalists, Producers and Drive time DJ’s.

Subject: Climate Change, Environmental, Nature, Public Affairs, News Talk, Book News.

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