We have already blown well past the 1.5℃ limit. The “official” limit is calculated by the actual temperature being above +1.5℃ for up to 20 consecutive years.
And no, that wasn’t a typo - that’s the political definition of “exceeding +1.5℃”.
And our CO2 production continues to accelerate. We haven’t even begun to reduce acceleration, much less enter into a steady-state production or reverse back to net zero.
We’re f**ked. As a species, we are setting up the conditions for an absolutely epic collapse of our civilization back to the Iron Age (or even the Stone Age if it’s bad enough) within the next 100 years, and the inertia of current changes may be enough to allow the entire planet to enter a true Venus Scenario, dooming all life on this rock millions of years ahead of time.
And no, we will not “innovate our way out of this problem”, for two main reasons:
- Business As Usual (BAU) is far more profitable, and so the Parasite Class - who have virtually all of the political and economic power - will fight tooth-and-nail against any fixes until it is far too late.
- Capitalism’s Return On Research (RoR) has utterly cratered over the last century. We now require more than 1,000× the investment $$$ for the same progress we did a century ago. Which ties directly into № 1, and why BAU will be the default until it’s waaaaaayyyy too late.
Our only option is to pull a page from 1795 France and eliminate the Parasite Class entirely, thereby removing our only true obstacle to change. Whether it be via punitive taxation or sharp steel is up to them.