Big Mood: New Report Says It’s “Highly Likely” Civilisation Will Be Beyond Saving By 2050

You know how you’ve been stressing a lot recently about how it feels like you’re never going to break into the Australian housing market or pay off your HECS debt? Well, hold onto that thought while you read the following: a climate change thinktank based out of Melbourne has just published a report that indicates it is “highly likely” human civilisation will crumble by 2050.

So there you go — turns out you don’t need to worry about buying a house, or settling your debts, cause within three short decades, it’s reasonably likely that most of Australia will be underwater and/or on fire. Dark clouds, silver linings, etc.

The paper — which contains a worryingly high occurrence of the phrase “outright chaos” — was authored by David Spratt, the head of a research body dedicated to climate findings, and Ian Dunlop. Lest you worry that these two have secret, anti-fossil fuel biases affecting their report, it’s worth pointing out that Dunlop was actually the one-time chairman of the Australian coal association, not to mention an international oil, gas and coal industry executive.

A new Australian report says the "point of no return" on climate change is quickly approaching.

"The scale of destruction is beyond our capacity to model with a high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end," by 2050: https://t.co/ZXCgsxkm4N pic.twitter.com/Ahv3NMkNYv

— Complex (@Complex) June 3, 2019

Moreover, the paper has been officially endorsed in a foreword by a retired Australian Admiral, Chris Barrie, who writes that the report has “laid bare the unvarnished truth about the desperate situation humans, and our planet, are in, painting a disturbing picture of the real possibility that human life on earth may be on the way to extinction, in the most horrible way.”

Many of the findings of the report are based on the devastating impact of climate cycle feedback loops. Basically put, an increase in the effects of climate change results in more climate change — for example, rising sea levels will lead to further warming. This in turn would lead to what has been described as the “hothouse Earth” scenario, where it will be impossible to curtail further warming. Moreover, we are already on track to such a scenario — it could be locked in due to as little as a 2 degree rise in global temperature patterns.

Based on that data, Dunlop and Spratt predict that within 30 years, “55 percent of the global population [will be] subject to more than 20 days a year of lethal heat conditions, beyond the threshold of human survivability,” not to mention “armed conflict between nations over resources” and the possibility of “nuclear war” and “religious fervour”.

Dunlop and Spratt allow that such a scenario is ostensibly avoidable — it would just take an immediate and massive global initiative, spearheaded by every country on Earth.

So yeah. At least the HECs/housing market stuff is good, right?