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Scientists warn we are in uncharted territory "likely to result in widespread future extinctions"
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Our addiction to fossil fuels has led to a dramatic new warning about future extinctions around the world.
US research published in Nature Geoscience has found that global carbon emissions haven’t been this high since an asteroid or other major geological event wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Scientists at the University of Hawaii also say emissions have ramped up faster than ever before, warning that we are in uncharted territory “likely to result in widespread future extinctions”.
“The findings are just indicating what we have been hinting at all along,” says Richard Dewey, an oceanographer at the University of Victoria and the associate director of science services at Ocean Networks Canada, who points out we are already seeing changes.
“The rate of anthropogenic generation of CO2 and its release into the atmosphere is continuing to increase and has now perhaps surpassed any release rate that we have seen in the geological record. We are putting out more CO2 faster than during any major geological event in 60 or 70-million years,” he tells NEWS 1130.
The result, says Dewey, is carbon is being added to the atmosphere faster than the ecosystem can accommodate it.
“What we are seeing — even in the Pacific Northwest over the past few years — is weather patterns will continue to shift and we will see longer droughts in places like California, where they have been breaking records. Alaska has been warmer by extraordinary amounts over the last few years, hurricanes are continuing to get stronger and sea levels continue to rise,” says Dewey.
“We are just going to have to deal with a progression of more severe weather and the consequences of droughts, floods and severe storms. That’s just a part of the reality and we are now starting to see that.”
Dewey says it is vital we change our behaviour — and even our culture — to try to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
“We are dependent on fossil fuels for energy and we consuming more energy in many aspects of our lives, whether it is shipping food and products around the globe or travelling. On an individual basis we can make a difference and policy-wise we can make a difference in gradually weaning ourselves off fossil fuels in the short term.”
Over the long term, Dewey believes we need to shift away from an energy-based economy.
