The philosophical foundations of ecological civilization: a manifesto for the future

• Main Author: Gare, Arran
• Other Authors: Swinburne University of Technology
• Format: Book
• Language: unknown
• Published: Taylor and Francis 2016
• Subjects: Antarctic; Flood River; Greenland; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/427697; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315543031

If the world's leading climate scientists are right, and there is no reason to believe they arc not, unless very drastic action is taken to stop greenhouse gas emissions, we are in danger of producing a runaway greenhouse effect that will be unstoppable. It will transform the global ecosystem so radically that billions of people will die and civilization might not survive. Even without a runaway greenhouse effect, the melting of Greenland and Antarctic ice will flood river deltas and coastal plains, which grow much of our food and where many of world's major cities are located. There will be more extreme weather events and more precipitation, but this will be over the oceans and the polar regions. In the tropics, also where much food is grown, it will be hotter and much drier. The die off of species occurring at present matches the great die offs that marked the end of past geological eras. It is predicted that by mid-century the Amazon rainforest will have been destroyed, along with all ocean fisheries. European honey bees, which have co-evolved with flowering plants and humans and are responsible for the fertilization of plants that produce up to a third of our food, are dying off in huge numbers. In Asian cities such as Beijing the air is often barely breathable, with 4000 people dying each day in China from the effects of air pollution. These are only sonic of the most obvious signs of a looming global ecological catastrophe.