Climate change: possible human extinction a ‘dangerously underexplored topic’, scientists say
- The world is under unprecedented pressure to avert climate change catastrophe
- Group of scientists say we need to think more about possibility of human extinction
Experts are ignoring the worst possible climate change catastrophic scenarios, including collapse of society or the potential extinction of humans, however unlikely, a group of top scientists claim.
Eleven scientists from around the world are calling on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s authoritative climate science organissation, to do a special science report on “catastrophic climate change” to “bring into focus how much is at stake in a worst-case scenario”.
In their perspective piece in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they raise the idea of human extinction and worldwide societal collapse in the third sentence, calling it “a dangerously underexplored topic”.
The scientists said they aren’t saying that worst is going to happen. They say the trouble is no one knows how likely or unlikely a “climate endgame” is and the world needs those calculations to battle global warming.
“I think it’s highly unlikely you are going to see anything close to even extinction over the next century simply because humans are incredibly resilient,” said study lead author Luke Kemp at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge in England. “Even if we have a 1 per cent chance of having a global catastrophe, going extinct over the coming century, that 1 per cent, that is way too high.”
Catastrophic climate scenarios “appear likely enough to warrant attention” and can lead to prevention and warning systems, Kemp said.