Two hundred of the world’s most prominent artists and scientists signed an open letter in French daily Le Monde on Monday calling for urgent political action to address the “global catastrophe” facing mankind and other species.

I’m sorry to say this but there's nothing we can do about it now.

40 years ago, people like Jimmy Carter sounded the alarm AND started doing something about it. Cue the oil crisis and Americans lost their ever-loving shit. Elected Reagan, put heads firmly in sand, and never looked back. Doubled down on natural gas and oil as well as global shipping and lots of air travel. Industry creates MOST of the problem and there's zero government initiatives to rein them in.

It's too late now. The arctic WILL melt. If we stopped using fossil fuels tomorrow AND planted a shit ton of trees, MAYBE we could keep it to a couple of degrees Celsius hotter, which is already bad. But again, that would mean actually changing how we live and people don't want to. They want to fly around a lot and buy cheap energy and in general not care.

People don't care about their own bodies. Over 1/3 are overweight or obese. People don't care about their own finances. Many people are in debt who don't have to be. People caring about something as nebulous as "the planet"? No way.

/r/worldnews Thread Link - m.france24.com