ABC Catalyst: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Prof Will Steffen
We have to leave nearly 90% of existing coal reserves in the ground. We have to leave half of gas reserves in the ground. About 35% of oil reserves in the ground. So, no Galilee Basin, no new gas, no new oil. And that’s to have a 50/50 chance. . . . .
The Anthropocene is exceptionally powerful. It is a single word that encapsulates the problem we have and the challenge we have ahead of us.
Prof Jim Gehling
It is really the lukewarm frog effect. We don’t feel the water beginning to boil around us. And that’s why there’s so much attention being brought to the concept of the Anthropocene. I’ve heard perfectly rational people say, “Well, it won’t matter when I’m dead.” Why are we here if things don’t matter when we’re dead? Course they do. We are part of a community, and that community has a right to continued existence, and continued existence in the presence of other organisms on the planet. And it’s possible. We’ve got all of the expertise today to actually solve these problems. We just don’t always have the will.
Prof Clive Hamilton
You know, I think it will take decades for people to understand what the Anthropocene means for humankind. I mean, it’s a profound ethical, philosophical, theological rethinking that humankind has to do.
Prof Will Steffen
The Anthropocene is exceptionally powerful. It is a single word that encapsulates the problem we have and the challenge we have ahead of us.
Narrator: Just to prevent temperatures rising more than two degrees, a target most countries have signed up to, requires a drastic change of tack.