Global Climate Emergency

Climate-change projections published by scientists at the Columbia University Earth Institute have shifted from warnings to emergency alarms.  The scientists are ringing the emergency bell because of the coming loss of human health and lives.  However, the real disaster lies with natural ecosystems. Earth’s webs of life constructed of interacting plants and animals will suffer far greater and more important loses than will human civilization.  For one thing, humans can emigrate (if their neighbors let them) from landscapes becoming uninhabitable.  Plants and most animals cannot.  (If you want a refresher course on climate change, this is an excellent review:  Global Warming Basics.)

In addition to the U. S. Southwest:

The tropics and the Middle East in summer are in danger of becoming practically uninhabitable by the end of the century if business-as-usual fossil fuel emissions continue, because wet bulb temperature could approach the level at which…