Perhaps not. Planet Earth will be around long after we are gone. It is us – all seven billion of us – that need saving. Our progeny needs saving, we need to leave behind a ‘livable’ planet for them.
"My daughter and the rest of Generation Hot have been given a life sentence for a crime they didn't commit," says author Mark Hertsgaard. "The reality is that we're locked in to at least 50 more years of rising temperatures and the harsher climate impacts they bring. Thus the young people of Generation Hot are condemned to spend the rest of their lives coping with a climate that will be hotter and more volatile than ever before in our civilization's history."
Mark puts the official start of Generation Hot at June 23, 1988, when climate scientist James Hansen first testified to Congress about climate change
‘Generation Hot’ may have only been born relatively recently, but we have been creating this change for much longer. Global atmospheric concentrations of CO2, the most important greenhouse gas, ranged between 200 and 300 parts per million (ppm) for 800,000 years, but have shot up to about 391 ppm over the past 150 years, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels.
“I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space.”
Stephen Hawking argues that it is nearly impossible for Earth to avoid disaster within the next few hundred years, and therefore the human race should expand to other planets
The average temperature on Earth has already warmed by close to 1°C since the beginning of the industrial period, and if we continue on the same path we will breach the threshold beyond which a 2°C increase will become unavoidable by 2020. The consequences of this are already being felt across the world; extreme weather fluctuations, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising sea levels.
The grim reality: climate change affects “me”
If we are unable to cap the temperature rise to 2°C, we will – and so will future generations – eventually be left with a skeletal planet, stripped of its capability to sustain the human race and millions of other species. The disruption in the food-water-energy nexus would leave humanity struggling with the basics of survival. At the current rate of emissions, we will soon breach the threshold beyond which a 2°C increase becomes unavoidable and even more extreme scenarios become likely. We need change, and we need it now.
“As we stand we’re only a few meters away from saying goodbye to the 2°C target.”
Faith Birol, Chief Economist, International Energy Agency (IEA)
"We will pay the price later in military terms. And that will involve human lives. There will be a human toll."
General Anthony Zinni, USMC (ret.), on climate change
“Extreme weather events continue to grow more frequent and intense in rich and poor countries alike, not only devastating lives, but also infrastructure, institutions, and budgets – an unholy brew which can create dangerous security vacuums.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
