AFP — Environmental collapse now a serious threat: scientists

PARIS — Climate change, population growth and environmental destruction could cause a collapse of the ecosystem just a few generations from now, scientists warned on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The paper by 22 top researchers said a “tipping point” by which the biosphere goes into swift and irreversible change, with potentially cataclysmic impacts for humans, could occur as early as this century.

The warning contrasts with a mainstream view among scientists that environmental collapse would be gradual and take centuries.

The study appears ahead of the June 20-22 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, the 20-year followup to the Earth Summit that set down priorities for protecting the environment.
The Nature paper, written by biologists, ecologists, geologists and palaeontologists from three continents, compared the biological impact of past episodes of global change with what is happening today.

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Environmental collapse now a serious threat: scientists
by Agence France-Presse

This conclusion echos that of James Lovelock some time ago. Lovelock recently retracted his dire warning to bring it in line with the majority view. Now here is a significant group of experts agreeing with Lovelock's initial conclusion based on the interaction of influences in a tightly integrated system — much like the financial collapse resulting from misjudgment of the degree of systemic risk.

The team determined that once 50-90 percent of small-scale ecosystems become altered, the entire eco-web tips over into a new state, characterised especially by species extinctions. 

Once the shift happens, it cannot be reversed.

 To support today’s population, about 43 percent of Earth’s ice-free land surface is being used for farming or habitation, according to the study.

 On current trends, the 50 percent mark will be reached by 2025, a point the scientists said is worryingly close to the tipping point.

If that happened, collapse would entail a shocking disruption for the world’s food supply, with bread-basket regions curtailed in their ability to grow corn, wheat, rice, fodder and other essential crops.

Yikes!