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Net Zero/2050 Fantasy or Reality?

11 0
10.01.2025

Getty Images and Unsplash .

Net Zero/2050 Fantasy or Reality may be the most significant issue of the 21st century.

Net Zero refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG), such as CO2, that’s produced and the amount that’s removed from the atmosphere. It can be achieved through a combination of emission reduction and emission removal.

The relationship between CO2 and a warmer/hotter climate is basic science: For example, according to Climate.gov: “The relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) and global temperatures is directly proportional: As CO2 levels in the atmosphere increase, so do global temperatures, primarily because CO2 acts as a greenhouse gas, trapping heat from the sun.”

If Net Zero/2050 is fantasy (false hope), the repercussions are unimaginable. The science is clear. Major ecosystems of the planet like Greenland, Antarctica, Arctic permafrost, and the Amazon rainforest are already severely stressed, right now, today. Climate Change is already doing its dirty work where nobody resides. There are hundreds of headlines in science journals, magazines, and research papers describing trouble with the world’s most important ecosystems.

Headline examples:

-Emergency Meeting Reveals the Alarming Extent of Antarctica’s Ice Loss (Earth.org)

– Methane Bombs’ Release 30 Years Equivalent of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Risk Triggering Climate Catastrophe (Earth.org)

– Critical Slowing down of the Amazon Forest After Increased Drought Occurrence ( PNAS – National Academy of Sciences)

Thawing Permafrost Poses Environmental Threat to Thousands of Sites with Legacy Industrial Contamination (Nature Communications)

– A Collapse of the Amazon Could Be Coming ‘Faster Than We Thought,’ The New York Times (The New York Times)

– Staggering Temperature Rise Predicted for the Middle East and North Africa: Some Parts of the Region, Which is Already Warming at the Same Rapid Rate as the Arctic, Could See up to 9 Degrees Celsius of Warming (Journal of Geophysical Research, Atmosphere)

To mitigate, or prevent, the ‘unimageable’, there are hundreds of well-intentioned publications about the pathway to Net Zero emissions by 2050. On balance, they talk favorably about reaching Net Zero by........

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