An alarming new study by Australia’s Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration is pointing to the “high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end” by 2050—with the all-important caveat that that’s the outcome to expect if humanity fails to take action on the climate emergency and get greenhouse gas emissions under control.
The study, released last week, includes a foreword by Admiral Chris Barrie (Ret.), who served as Australia’s Chief of Defence Force between 1998 and 2002. It “predicts a biblical-like scenario of devastating floods, drought, famine, and a breakdown in international order,” the New York Post reports, “calls for a new approach to climate change, and paints a bleak picture of the world in 30 years if nothing is done to combat greenhouse emissions.”
In the report’s central 2050 scenario, average global warming locks in at 3.0°C (5.4°F). Disaster ensues, with a billion people forced to migrate from homes that are no longer livable, and food supplies falling short of what’s needed to feed the world’s population.
“North America will suffer from devastating weather extremes including wildfires, heat waves, and drought—while other places in the world such as the Middle East and West Africa will become unlivable,” the Post states. “Meanwhile, 55% of the global population would be subjected to more than 20 days a year of lethal heat conditions,” a condition the report deemed “beyond the threshold of human survivability.”
“This scenario provides a glimpse into a world of ‘outright chaos’, on a path to the end of human civilization and modern society as we have known it, in which the challenges to global security are simply overwhelming and political panic becomes the norm,” the report states.
