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More and more the world resembles an entomologist's dream. The earth is moving out of its orbit, the axis has shifted; from the north the snow blows down in huge knife-blue drifts. A new ice age is setting in, the transverse sutures are closing up and everywhere throughout the corn belt the fetal world is dying, turning to dead mastoid. Inch by inch the deltas are drying out and the river beds are smooth as glass. A new day is dawning, a metallurgical day, when the earth shall clink with showers of bright yellow ore. As the thermometer drops, the form of the world grows blurred; osmosis there still is, and here and there articulation, but at the periphery the veins are all varicose, at the periphery the light waves bend and the sun bleeds like a broken rectum. <Henry Miller>
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Since the start of agriculture 11,000 years ago, earth has lost an estimated 50% of its terrestrial plants and roughly 20% of its animal biodiversity. If current trends continue, as many as 1 million of Earth's 7 million to 10 million plant and animal species could face extinction in the near future. Such an enormous loss of biodiversity would also disrupt every major ecosystem on the planet, with fewer insects to pollinate plants, fewer plants to filter the air, water and soil, and fewer forests to protect human settlements from floods and other natural disasters. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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Meanwhile, those same phenomena that cause natural disasters are all predicted to become stronger and more frequent due to global climate change. These disasters, coupled with climate induced droughts and sea-level rise, could mean 1 billion people would become climate refugees by the year 2050, forcing mass migrations that further endanger human lives and disrupt society. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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Overpopulation will not make anything easier. By 2050, the world population will likely grow to ~9.9 billion, with growth projected by many to continue until well into the next century. This booming growth will exacerbate societal problems like food insecurity, housing insecurity, joblessness, overcrowding and inequality. Larger populations also increase the chances of pandemics, as humans encroach ever farther into wild spaces, the risk of uncovering deadly new zoonotic diseases like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19; becomes ever greater. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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While we can see and feel the effects of global warming on a daily basis, like record-setting heat across the world and increasingly active hurricane seasons. But the worst effects of these other crises could take decades to become apparent. That delay between cause and effect may be responsible for an "utterly inadequate" effort to address these encroaching environmental threats. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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Humanity is barreling toward a "ghastly future" of mass extinctions, health crises and constant climate-induced disruptions to society. A future that can only be prevented if world leaders start taking environmental threats seriously. The three major crises facing life on Earth are climate disruption, biodiversity decline and human overconsumption and overpopulation, are poised only to escalate in the coming decades and put Earth in a more precarious position than most people realize, and could even jeopardize the human race. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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If most of the world's population truly understood and appreciated the magnitude of the crises we summarize here, and the inevitability of worsening conditions, one could logically expect positive changes in politics and policies to match the gravity of the existential threats, But the opposite is unfolding. As long as world leaders and policymakers start immediately taking the problems before us seriously. Once leaders accept "the gravity of the situation," then the large-scale changes needed to conserve our planet can begin. Those changes must be sweeping, including "the abolition of perpetual economic growth an a rapid exit from fossil-fuel use. <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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"It is therefore incumbent on experts in any discipline that deals with the future of the biosphere and human well-being to … avoid sugar-coating the overwhelming challenges ahead and 'tell it like it is,'" the team concluded. "Anything else is misleading at best …potentially lethal for the human enterprise at worst." <Brandon Specktor , The planet is dying faster than we thought>
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“One can see from space how the human race has changed the Earth. Nearly all of the available land has been cleared of forest and is now used for agriculture or urban development. The polar icecaps are shrinking and the desert areas are increasing. At night, the Earth is no longer dark, but large areas are lit up. All of this is evidence that human exploitation of the planet is reaching a critical limit. But human demands and expectations are ever-increasing. We cannot continue to pollute the atmosphere, poison the ocean and exhaust the land. There isn’t any more available.” <Stephen Hawking>
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The most compassionate and peaceful thing you can do for yourself and others is to let go of the past, let go of the anger, let go of trying to hurt people that wronged you. There are thousands of people dying from cancer that wish they had someone to care about them and be with them during their final days. There are children being sold into sex trafficking and are hoping someone would rescue them. There are homeless people that wish they had something warm to wear or eat. There is an entire species being wiped out because not enough people care about our oceans. Today, remember that there is someone praying for the very things you take for granted. Spend your effort where God needs you to be on the front lines of the war on earth, not on the battlefields of the past. <Shannon L. Alder>