Put simply, there are two ways of crossing into (accelerated) catastrophic climate change in the next decade or two. One is through failing to reduce and remove Green House Gas (GHG) emissions at a fast-enough pace, that is, as it should be, the most important focus of efforts at climate solutions. The second is through failing to slow or prevent complete Arctic summer sea ice melt, the first climate tipping point that based on current trends could begin to occur as early as 2025 (Baiman 2021, p.7). For example, an article in today’s (3/2/2021) New York Times, (Velasquez-Manoff and White 2021), notes that some scientists fear ‘monstrous change’ from a weakening Atlantic Gulf Stream (linked to Arctic sea ice melt – see (Baiman, 2021)), and highlights the extreme danger that we face. As far as I can tell, the proposal offered by Graciela Chichilnisky offers the best plan for rapidly reducing and reversing GHG emissions and I urge that it, or something like it, be implemented at the Glasgow COP26 in November 2021 (Chichilnisky and Bal 2019, Chap. 9) (Chichilnisky 2020). But so far, no official government body is investigating emergency climate triage to slow or prevent the Arctic summer sea ice from completely melting.
Download emergency appeal here: