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Emergency on Planet Earth


This guide Tells The Truth about what’s happening, why, and what we can do.

Written by Dr Emily Grossman with the support of the XR Scientists community. Fact-checked and reviewed by a wide range of experts.

Explore the table of contents below and click to read more. See the Google Doc version of this guide to read offline or print. See also a selection of key facts from this guide.

Table of contents

  • Introduction
  • Part 1: Back to the start… How did we get into this climate mess and is it really that bad?
    • How can we be so sure that the Earth is heating?
    • Why should we care about a few degrees of heating?
    • Hasn’t the Earth been hotter in the past?
    • What exactly are greenhouse gases and what is the greenhouse effect?
    • Can we be certain that humans are causing global heating?
    • Haven’t natural fluctuations in carbon dioxide affected the Earth’s temperature?
    • What’s happened in the past few thousand years?
    • What’s happened in the past 150 years?
    • What are greenhouse gas emissions like today?
    • We have been warned over and over!
  • Part 2: It’s getting hot in here… What’s already happening to our planet as a result of global heating and why?
    • What is already happening to our weather?
      • More extreme weather
      • Longer and more intense heatwaves
      • Longer and harsher droughts
      • More forest fires
      • More extreme storms and floods
      • Stronger hurricanes
    • What is global heating doing to our oceans, coastlines and wildlife?
      • Melting ice and rising seas
      • Loss of homes due to rising seas
      • Impacts of heating on ocean life
      • Impacts of carbon dioxide on ocean life
      • Impacts of heating on land-based wildlife
  • Part 3: The lie of the land… What other damage are we doing to our planet?
    • How are we damaging our land and our waters?
      • Loss of natural resources
      • Deforestation
      • Intensive agriculture
      • Livestock farming
      • Soil degradation
      • Loss of grasslands, mangroves, wetlands and peatlands
    • How are we polluting our waters?
    • How are we polluting our air?
    • How are we destroying our wildlife?
      • Why should we care about the loss of our wildlife?
      • Loss of species
      • Loss of fish, whales and dolphins
      • Loss of insects
      • Loss of wildlife in the UK
      • The Sixth Mass Extinction
  • Part 4: Sick, thirsty, hungry and homeless… What knock-on effects are we already seeing?
    • Impacts on human health
      • Health threats from extreme weather
      • Increased spread of diseases
      • The threat of new diseases
      • Health threats from air pollution
      • Health threats from intensive agriculture
      • Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable
    • Impacts on global food production
    • Impacts on water availability
    • Mass displacement and threats to safety, human rights and our global economy
  • Part 5: Too hot to handle… Where are we heading?
    • How hot is too hot? The promises of the Paris Agreement
    • How hot is it likely to get and when?
    • The additional risks of feedback loops
      • Water vapour and clouds
      • The ice-albedo effect
      • Melting permafrost
      • Wetland methane production
      • Drying soils and mega-heatwaves
      • Carbon cycle feedbacks
    • How tipping points might make things even worse…
      • Permafrost collapse
      • Ice sheet slippage
      • Thermohaline circulation
      • Forest dieback
      • The compound risk of multiple tipping points
    • What will our world look like in 2050 if we don’t take radical action now?
      • 2050: More intense heatwaves and forest fires
      • 2050: More intense storms, floods and hurricanes
      • 2050: Increased droughts and water shortages
      • 2050: Rising seas and increased coastal flooding
      • 2050: More devastating loss of wildlife on land and in the oceans
      • 2050: Further reductions in food production
      • 2050: More devastating impacts on human health
      • 2050: Mass displacement
      • 2050: Poverty and financial instability
      • 2050: Social instability and conflict
    • What will our world look like by the end of the century?
      • 2100: Extreme weather
      • 2100: Flooding and mass migration
      • 2100: Wildlife loss
      • 2100: Impacts on human health, food and water
    • What will our world look like by the end of the century if we reach 4°C of heating?
      • 4°C of heating: Extreme heat
      • 4°C of heating: Rising seas, flooding and mass displacement
      • 4°C of heating: Wildlife loss
      • 4°C of heating: Reductions in food production
    • Not worth the risk: Why we need to apply the Precautionary Principle
  • Part 6: Enough is enough… How are our governments letting us down?
    • What are governments ‘supposed’ to be doing to address the ecological crisis?
    • What are governments ‘supposed’ to be doing to address the climate crisis?
      • The Paris Agreement
      • Net zero by 2050
      • It’s not just WHEN we get to net zero, it’s HOW
      • Why net zero by 2050 isn’t actually fast enough
      • Why richer countries need to get to net zero MUCH sooner than 2050
    • How our governments are making the climate crisis worse, not better!
      • Emissions from shipping and aviation are on course to reach dangerous levels
      • Governments are still subsidising fossil fuels
      • Governments are approving new fossil fuel projects
      • Banks are financing the fossil fuel industry
    • The way that governments invest money in emerging from the coronavirus crisis is crucial
    • Is the UK government doing enough?
      • UK emissions are falling – but only in some sectors
      • UK figures don’t account for aviation, shipping or embedded emissions
      • UK emissions are not falling nearly fast enough
      • The UK government is missing its own targets
      • The UK needs to be getting to net zero by 2025, not 2050
    • The UK government is making things worse, not better!
      • The UK government is subsidising fossil fuels
      • The UK government is approving NEW fossil fuel projects
      • UK banks are investing in fossil fuels
    • But the UK only emits 1.5% of the world’s carbon, shouldn’t we be focusing our efforts elsewhere?
  • Part 7: Act now… So what do we do?
    • How long do we have and is it already too late?
    • So what needs to happen now?
    • Why individual action isn’t enough
    • The urgent need for collective action
  • Quotes
  • Credits and Reviewers
  • Testimonials: What other scientists, political voices and readers are saying about this guide
  • In the media: Talks, articles, interviews and short films about this guide

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