Recently a Board member of a major Planing Authority questioned an assertion I made that 2.5°C of warming was possible by 2050. Attached is the rationale that I sent back to that entity. What was interesting was an initial response that my assessment was rather bleak! My response to this really falls into two parts. The first is that the future is bleak indeed if the world keeps pretending that just a slight addition to business as normal will suffice. The second is that the only place for optimism and hope is in the opportunities that are either evident or that will emerge within the planetary life systems that are rapidly becoming 'more bleak' (if there is such a phrase) for humans. I deal with this issue in an article called learning to Live in Toxic Nature.https://jfsdigital.org/articles-and-essays/2018-2/vol-22-no-4-june-2018/learning-to-live-in-toxic-nature-toxicus-natura/
In my view this latter understanding of bleakness is non-negotiable and needs to be accepted if humans wish to survive and thrive well in a meaningful way. But then that would really require us to act like the grownups Greta Thunberg so desperately wishes us to be.
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