Guy McPherson – On Habitat Loss and Human Extinction

What should be our collective response to Earths newest phase of accelerated warming? Dr. Guy McPherson, a conservation biologist has been warning all who would listen that the existing economic model would lead to civilization’s collapse and human extinction resulting from loss of habitat due to extreme weather events.

It is not a message that many want to hear yet some find it liberating from the “prison of Civilization” and are choosing to pursue what they love, understanding that the processes now under way are no longer reversible. Intellectually we know of past collapsed civilizations and five previous mass extinctions. But the ability to incorporate that knowledge, that we too are vulnerable, that we could be next, into rational social behavior is in conflict with Capitalism’s utopian demand for unlimited growth and the commodification of all life and the Planet it self.

He mentions scientist who have raised alarm, based on their observations, about trapped and frozen methane stability only to be shunned by the establishment managers and theoretical modelers. At issue, their increasing concern of a potential, sudden 50 GT methane release, doubling current levels.

McPherson offers some thoughts on what to do when facing a terminal diagnosis and why he is delivering it. Using data from Sam Carana at Arctic News, he has shortened his previous time line for collapse and extinction to less than 8 years. With

He spoke in Chicago during his mid-west tour.

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