Apocalypse Soon: Has Civilization Passed the Environmental Point of No Return?

One of the problems that humans face, cognitively speaking, is the impulse to deny the existence of something they don't like or believe in until it overwhelms them . Cultures that have endured collapse set the example. Generally anyone sounding an alarm in these cultures would be ignored, marginalized and sometimes killed to preserve the illusion that everyone agreed that everything was alright.

Well chicken little has been raising the alarm about severe environmental consequences if we don't change our ways for some time now and a new book, 2052: A Global Forecast for the Next Forty Years, is putting forward the proposition that it's too late.

The book's author, Jorgen Randers of the BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, argues that in the second half of the 21st century that our culture will collapse due to severe global warming.

From the Scientific American review: "Most worrisome, Randers notes, greenhouse gases are being emitted twice as fast as oceans and forests can absorb them. Whereas in 1972 humans were using 85 percent of the regenerative capacity of the biosphere to support economic activities such as growing food, producing goods and assimilating pollutants, the figure is now at 150 percent—and growing."

Heads up. Sky IS falling. Scientific American reviews the book here.