Ten facts humanity must face if it wants to survive on a livable planet
“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, like when you find a trout in the milk” — Henry David Thoreau
I’ve had a gratifying response to my seven-part series on “the future of humanity”, but I’ve also had more than one request to boil it all down to a single post so all the tl;dr folks out there can absorb the basic argument without too many details getting in the way. Although anyone who knows me knows that brevity is not my strong suit, I’m going to give it a try.
What we have learned is reliably true about climate change and resource depletion
We can begin by asking where the scientific consensus is right now on fundamental questions about the evolving shape of our perilous future. Consensus is not unanimity, but on most questions about the future we are facing today, it is possible to assess a massive body of available evidence and pick a side. Personally, I believe our future will be determined by how well we accept and respond to ten key findings in the scientific literature, findings that are so thoroughly documented and validated that I’m going to suggest we call them facts.
