Human civilization faces ‘Existential risk’ by 2050 according to new Australian climate change report

A new report by Australian climate experts warns that "climate change now represents a near- to mid-term existential threat" to human civilization. In this grim forecast — which was endorsed by the former chief of the Australian Defense Force — human civilization could end by 2050 due to the destabilizing societal and environmental factors caused by a rapidly warming planet. 

The report, entitled "Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach," lays out a future where society could collapse due to instability set off by migration patterns of billions of people affected by drought, rising sea levels, and environmental destruction. 

"Climate-change impacts on food and water systems, declining crop yields and rising food prices driven by drought, wildfire and harvest failures have already become catalysts for social breakdown and conflict across the Middle East, the Maghreb and the Sahel, contributing to the European migration crisis," the report said. 

Read the story from CBS News by Brian Pascus - “Human civilization faces ‘Existential risk’ by 2050 according to new Australian climate change report.”

(Interview with David Spratt on "Climate Conversations")

Emphasizing the need for urgency in addressing climate change

A small part of the preamble of the Paris Accord on climate change action signed by 195 countries in December 2015 says: “Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet and thus requires the widest possible cooperation by all countries, and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response, with a view to accelerating the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions, Also recognizing that deep reduction in global emissions will be required in order to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention and emphasizing the need for urgency in addressing climate change…”

Taken from “Unprecedented Crime: Climate Change Denial and Game Changers for Survival” by Dr Peter Carter, and Elizabeth Woodworth.

Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’

An architect of the government's new energy policy has played down suggestions the scheme represents a carbon price.

And the lobby group representing electricity wholesalers and retailers, the Australian Energy Council, has provided cautious approval for the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee, while warning significant design work was still required and that a carbon price is an inevitable outcome of the scheme.

The council, which represents wholesalers and retailers such as AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy, said the proposal was "a considered attempt to deal with the issues of reliability and emissions reduction at least cost”.

On Thursday, Energy Security Board member John Pierce declared that "we are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability, what we are pricing is the ability for the mechanism to be dispatched.”

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by James Massola and Peter Hannam - “Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’.”