Climate Change Assignment

David Attenborough makes horrifying predictions for the 2030s, 2040s, 2050s, 2080s and 2100s:

2030s

With continued deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, it will degrade to a point where it can no longer produce enough moisture, transforming into a dry savanna. Not only will this decimate the biodiversity in the rainforest, but it will also alter the global water cycle.

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Additionally, the Arctic will start experiencing ice-free summers. Without the white ice caps, less of the sun’s energy will be reflected back into space. This will accelerate global warming.

2040s

In the North, frozen permafrost soils will thaw, releasing methane into the atmosphere, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

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2050s

As oceans continue to heat and become more acidic, coral reefs around the world will bleach and die. This will cause fish populations to crash, which will affect millions of people who rely on the ocean for their livelihoods, like fishing and tourism.

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2080s

Global food production will enter into a crisis as soils become exhausted by overuse. Pollinating insects will disappear and the weather will become more unpredictable.

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2100s

The planet will be four degrees Celsius warmer, rendering large parts of the Earth uninhabitable and leaving millions of people homeless. Scientists predict that the sixth mass extinction will be well underway at this point, causing irreversible damage to the planet. The security and stability of the Holocene era- our “Garden of Eden,” as Attenborough calls it, will be lost.