As the planet spirals toward environmental collapse, elders like Attenborough, Earle, Hansen and Suzuki have spent decades warning us – and offering hope. But the billionaires in bunkers aren’t listening. They are too busy getting rich off our destruction.

As human civilisation pursues its relentless march to oblivion, it is time to reflect on the many wise voices who have forewarned of it – and the many foolish ones that are inviting it.

“Right now, we’re facing a manmade disaster of global scale. Our greatest threat in thousands of years,” said British science broadcaster David Attenborough, 99, in  his final warning to humanity.

“If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon. But the longer we leave it, the more difficult it’ll be to do something about it.”

“There’s a chance for us to make amends, to complete our journey of development, manage our impact, and once again become a species in balance with nature. All we need is the will to do so.”

The caveats of pioneer climatologist James Hansen, 84, who first warned the world of the risks of global overheating in 1988, have proven correct time and again. Recently Hansen tabled proofs that the climate crisis is worse, and moving much faster, than most people – including the IPCC – imagine.

His latest study, to evaluate climate sensitivity and the forces that underly climate change, found the world’s climate to be far more sensitive to a doubling in atmospheric CO2 than previously estimated, whereas the contrary cooling effect caused by atmospheric sulphate aerosols may have been overestimated.

The Earth’s oceans, our planet’s primary life support system, are now in crisis due to overheating and overfishing, and are perilously close to tipping into collapse, according to  pioneer oceanographer Sylvia Earle, 90.

Eminent Canadian geneticist  Dr David Suzuki, 89, has stated bluntly is that it is already too late to halt climate change. The question is what we can do next in the face of unfolding climate........

© Pearls and Irritations