"Because of the delays in the system, if the global society waits until those constraints are unmistakably apparent, it will have waited too long."

Limits to Growth, 1972
Abstract by Eduard Pestel

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Rising Tide of Environmental Refugees

On Apr. 30, 2006, a man fishing off the coast of Barbados discovered a 20- foot boat adrift with the bodies of 11 young men on board, bodies that were "virtually mummified" by the sun and salty ocean spray.

As the end drew near, one passenger left a note tucked between two bodies: "I would like to send my family in Basada [Senegal] a sum of money. Please excuse me and goodbye." The author of the note was apparently one of a group of 52 who had left Senegal on Christmas Eve aboard a boat destined for the Canary Islands, a jumping off point for Europe.

They must have drifted for some 2,000 miles, ending their trip in the Caribbean. This boat was not unique. During the first weekend of September 2006, police intercepted boats from Mauritania with a record total of nearly 1,200 people on board.

See IPS News Service

This Little Light of Mine

NASA warming scientist: 'This is the last chance'

James Hansen told Congress on Monday that the world has long passed the "dangerous level" for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and needs to get back to 1988 levels. He said Earth's atmosphere can only stay this loaded with man-made carbon dioxide for a couple more decades without changes such as mass extinction, ecosystem collapse and dramatic sea level rises.

See allindians.com

Entropy: The Great Unwinding

Kunstler’s precautionary analysis is unsettling. But it is echoed by many other thinkers who are examining the course of modern civilization, anticipating the “convergence of catastrophes” and pondering the consequences. For confirmation, just note the number of books and movies during the last few years that contemplate an impending apocalypse. Kunstler would argue that these are all premonitions inspired by the encroaching margins of entropy, the breakdown of order as we slide faster and faster down the speedy slope of energy consumption.

See West Coast Climate Equity Advisor Ray Grigg

Fleeing Catastrophe, Stuck in the Slums of Bangladesh

Alan Watts on sounding the alarm, responding (1971)

BIODIVERSITY: A Tipping Point on Species Loss?

UXBRIDGE, Canada, Jan 13, 2010 (IPS) - Humanity is destroying the network of living things that comprise our life support system. While this sawing-through-the-branch-we're-perched-on is largely unintentional, world leaders can't say they didn't know what's going on: 123 countries promised to take urgent action in 2003 but have done little to stem the rising tide of extinctions in what's known as the extinction or biodiversity crisis.

See Stephen Leahy, IPS

Major Antarctic glacier is 'past its tipping point'

A major Antarctic glacier has passed its tipping point, according to a new modelling study. After losing increasing amounts of ice over the past decades, it is poised to collapse in a catastrophe that could raise global sea levels by 24 centimetres.

See New Scientist

Bring Me Little Water, Silvy - VOCO

As the World Burns

Our collective response to the emerging catastrophe verges on suicidal. World leaders have been talking about tackling climate change for nearly 20 years now — yet carbon emissions keep going up and up. "We are in a race against time," says Rep. Jay Inslee, a Democrat from Washington who has fought for sharp reductions in planet-warming pollution. "Mother Nature isn't sitting around waiting for us to get our political act together."

See JEFF GOODELL, Rolling Stone

Poll

The IPCC failed because :