The Four Knights of the Apocalypse Destroy Planet Earth

The fourth most terrifying factor in destroying the planet is the obsession with economic growth that does not recognize the limitations of our planet's resources.

Climate change and biodiversity loss threaten human existence, and two other factors are no less dangerous. They are population and economic growth.

In this article , published by the American website "The Hill", author David Sherman said that after decades of misinformation and evasion about the risks involved in climate change, governments are now beginning to confirm the warnings of climate scientists about climate extremes on the planet.

But the measures taken to tackle the climate crisis are not enough to prevent temperatures from rising in the future, and we need to stop greenhouse emissions within the next two decades.

The author stated that the success of efforts to reduce climate change can be assessed by measuring the levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. If all other methods fail, we still have the option of spending hundreds of billions of dollars developing technologies that absorb these gases from the atmosphere. But a large part of efforts to reduce the effects of climate change depends on technological solutions that in turn cause environmental damage.

Biodiversity and its ecological importance

The writer emphasized that climate change is one of the most important factors causing the loss of biodiversity, and even if we manage to contain the climate change crisis, the biodiversity crisis will continue, albeit at a slower pace, because its main cause is the depletion of the increasing number of the world’s population, the limited natural resources of the planet in order to achieve economic gains. .

The 2019 "climate emergency warning" - signed by more than 11,000 scientists - identified the growing global population and global GDP among the causes of environmental degradation. But the science of identifying the relationship between biodiversity loss, its environmental impacts and the decline of civilization is still not understood by most, not to mention that we don't have a single metric for evaluating demise or success.

According to scientists from Australia and the United States, the magnitude of the threats to all forms of life - including humanity - are so great that it is difficult to understand even by scientists in light of the low awareness of governments and industries, which explains the ineffectiveness of global laws to protect the environment.

The consequences of this include the decimation of agricultural crops and the accompanying crises such as famine and conflict. In the early 1930s, the so-called "Dirty 1930s" in Central America, a prolonged drought led to the loss of 1.2 billion tons of soil across the Great Plains and the displacement of thousands.

There are some hopeful signs of increased awareness among governments, the most important of which is the long-awaited collaboration between the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Natural capital is currently being assessed in 90 countries under the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounting. The International Task Force on Financial Disclosures Related to Nature will develop a framework for companies and financial institutions to report on nature and transitional risks.

Population growth

Philip Cavaro, Professor of Philosophy at the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, noted that several studies show that curbing population growth is among the cheapest and most effective means of mitigating climate change.

But population growth is a taboo topic at the moment, and the most prominent reason for this is human rights concerns; and the need to strike a balance between humanity's right to exist and the survival of the many other species on which we depend.

According to Cavaro, the 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that "global economic and population growth remain the most important factors behind the increase in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion."

Consumer economy

The writer pointed out that the fourth most terrifying factor is the obsession with economic growth that does not recognize the limited resources of our planet.

Leaders and country representatives at the UN Climate Summit COP26 - makers of fossil fuels - focused on growth, progress and prosperity, and could not imagine economic reform through reducing consumption, so this topic was not discussed in the government body's report

Source : Hill