To achieve carbon neutrality in France by 2050, we would need to reduce our emissions from 10 metric tons of CO2 (tCO2) per capita /year to 2 tCO2 per capita/year. For scale, one return flight from Paris to New York produces around 1 tCO2 per passenger…
According to the IPCC, agricultural production will fall by 2% per decade in the coming years, while the world’s population continues to increase by 10% every decade.
Although greenhouse gas emissions in Europe decreased by 25% between 1990 and 2017, global emissions have increased by 64% in the same period and are still on the rise.
The 29th of July 2021 was called “Earth Overshoot Day”. In 210 days, we had used the total amount of resources that the planet can regenerate in a year.
According to the IPCC, should greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at the current rate, sea levels could rise by 1.1 meters (3.5ft) by 2100, potentially putting over 1.4 billion people at risk.
Vertebrate animal populations have already fallen by 68% between 1970 and 2016. If we continue to emit greenhouse gases at our current rate, this downwards trend may worsen, leading to the extinction of many species by 2050.
If global warming is to remain under the 1.5°C threshold, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced to achieve a balance between emissions and absorption by 2050. This balance is also known as carbon neutrality.
Should current trends persist, around 90% of the Earth’s coral reefs may have disappeared by 2050. This would impact the entirety of the world’s marine ecosystem.
Global temperatures have increased by 1°C on average since the beginning of the industrial era, and the IPCC estimates that they will increase by a further 1.5 to 5°C by the end of the century. It is imperative that we limit this increase to 2°C.
The broad consensus in the scientific community is that current efforts are woefully inadequate and will not allow us to limit global warming to 1.5/2°C. Indeed, current predictions indicate that temperatures will rise by 3 to 5°C. We need to face the facts, not with guilt but with courage: the trajectory we are following is headed for ecological disaster, the unprecedented effects of which will be felt by all countries and all populations well before the end of this century. However, it is still possible to greatly limit the extent of this disaster, if we initiate radical change immediately. While these changes will be difficult to implement, they are also a source of hope. But they will only be possible if we all take action, massively and very rapidly. We must act, each on our level and with the means at our disposal, to collectively create a better future and support the cause that our even our children have begun to defend.
Will we leave our children to act alone? Lire la suite »
