Are We Headed For Near-Term Human Extinction?
Source: Now Toronto Recent studies suggest it is irresponsible to rule out the possibility after last week's "warning to humanity" from more than 15,000 climate change scientists Shifts in climate can be exponential, abrupt and massive due to “feedbacks,” which can amplify and diminish the effects of global warming. A “warning to humanity” raising the spectre “of potentially catastrophic climate change… from burning fossil fuels, deforestation and agricultural production – particularly from farming ruminants for meat consumption,” was published in the journal BioScience last week. More than 15,000 scientists from 184 countries endorsed the caution, which comes on the 25th anniversary of a letter released by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1992, advising that “a great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided.”