On the present trajectory of emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates a rise of around 2C by 2050; possibly as early as 2039.
A 2C rise by 2050 was the ‘highly likely’ case included in a range of scenarios considered by the expert actuaries and Exeter researchers. They labelled 2C warming as ‘catastrophic’ and listed a number of associated impacts on climate, nature, society and human mortality:
· Breakdown of some critical ecosystem services and Earth systems.
· Major extinction events in multiple regions.
· Ocean circulation severely impacted.
· High number of climate tipping points triggered, with a partial ‘tipping cascade’, increasing climate instability even further.
· Severe socio-political fragmentation in many regions; low-lying regions lost.
· Heat and water stress driving involuntary mass migration of billions of people.
· Catastrophic mortality events from disease, malnutrition, thirst and conflict.
And the starkest conclusion of all:
> · The deaths of at least 2 billion people.
We could not find a single article about the report in any national UK newspaper, other than The Guardian and Observer, neither of which mentioned the 4 billion deaths, but focused on the threat to GDP!. Nor could we find anything on the BBC News website. This silence is extraordinary. It is a stunning example of propaganda by omission; arguably the greatest crime of state-corporate media.