December 10 2009

Dire climatic projections have been published at the Copenhagen Climate summit as politicians, scientists and environmentalists scrabble to contain further growth in carbon dioxide emissions.

Parts per million of Co2 in the atmosphere are now running 30% above pre industrial levels and scientists fret that we are now close to a “tipping point” whereupon “positive feedback” will exponentially accelerate the pace of deterioration.

An increase in global average temperatures of 3 degrees or more is thought likely to be the point at which our finely calibrated climate would be plunged into chaos with rainforests burning, polar caps melting and a mass release of methane from frozen permafrost.

This nightmare world would pose grave risks for civilization and require planetary scale engineering to correct by the end of this century.

In an attempt to stave off such an unfavourable proposition a target of a 2 degree rise has been settled upon by the talks. Although even this scenario would prove disastrous with desertification, flood and freak weather becoming commonplace.

Measures to reduce our carbon emissions thought likely to be implemented within the decade include the use of synthetic meats, reducing reliance on methane heavy livestock and the construction, potentially, of millions of artificial “trees”. Designed to extract carbon from the atmosphere for storage underground.

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