With regard to increasing global temperatures, I believe the planet is now in a state of positive feedback.
Increasing temperatures, apart from melting the permafrost, also release huge quantities of Methane, a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. Increasing temperatures also set off global wildfires, which not only removes trees and vegetation from the planet, but also produces even more CO2 – a double-whammy. This in turn leads to even higher temperature increases which in turn produces more Methane and CO2 and so on – that is the positive feedback. So even if you dropped CO2 emissions to zero tomorrow – it would still be too late as there are plenty of other mechanisms operating to take over our puny efforts at destroying the planet.
I sent my thoughts off to 2 Professors this afternoon, one a Professor of climate science, the other probably one of the brightest blokes in the country – I wanted their honest opinions. Unfortunately – they both agreed with me – which I must admit left me seriously pissed-off.
One solution to the Fermi Paradox, often cited, is that advanced civilisations don’t make it past the nuclear age – they end up blowing themselves to smithereens. Suppose it’s the even more likely scenario that they don’t make it past the global climate catastrophe age – due to sheer greed and stupidity. Wouldn’t that be ironic?
