Vita TV - Trajectories of the Earth System
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Few science reports tell such a grand tale about the challenges of the future as the August 2018 paper: Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene.
The lead author was an Australian Earth System scientist - Professor Will Steffen - who passed away in January 2023 from pancreatic cancer.
We can honour the life of Professor Steffen and protect ourselves from the future by understanding the profound message of the Trajectories paper.
The paper proposes two alternative pathways for humanity and our Living Planet under Anthropogenic climate change: ‘Stabilized Earth’ and ‘Hothouse Earth’.
Stabilized Earth calls for the return to Holocene-like conditions to ensure the wellbeing of the biosphere, our life-support system.
Our present path is ‘Hothouse Earth’ in which excess global heating annihilates most life on Earth over the coming decades and centuries.
In between Stabilized- and Hothouse Earth are a series of reinforcing feedbacks called the cascade of climate tipping points.
These are projected to be triggered when Earth’s average temperature rises one to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.
As the Earth is already more than 1.3 degrees warmer than preindustrial, the Trajectories paper tells us that efforts to stabilize Earth’s climate must begin immediately.
The Trajectories paper is fundamental to Vita Sapien Philosophy in framing two distinct pathways for the future.
Instead of Stabilized Earth, Vita Sapien refers to the Verdant Age, the potential future where humans and the biosphere thrive in synergy deep into the Long Future.
The alternative is Mass Extinction represented by the Anthronaut symbol.
At the heart of Vita Sapien’s work is the belief that the sapient adults need a unifying philosophy grounded in science and the reverence of nature for humanity and the Living Planet to survive the Anthropocene Crisis.
Vita Sapien’s sustainable life philosophy is called Vita Worldview.
Read Vita Worldview today.
