George Soros is worried.
The billionaire and legendary investor fears that our civilization will collapse if nothing changes.
He has indeed just sounded the alarm on this catastrophe which is coming if we do not act. The problem or the cause that could accelerate the downfall of our world is climate change, says Soros.
The rise in temperatures in recent years will have disastrous consequences on the planet, he warned during a speech at the 2023 Munich Security Conference on Feb. 16.
"Our civilization is in danger of collapsing because of the inexorable advance of climate change," the billionaire said. "The climate system is broken, and it needs to be repaired. That’s the main message I’d like to convey this evening."
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Growing Urgency
He said the time is urgent because temperatures continue to rise at a rate that will most likely push past the 1.5°C warming threshold since pre-industrial levels set by the Paris Agreement.
The current level of global warming is, according to Soros, alarming because in order to succeed in limiting and stabilizing global warming below 2°C by 2100, it will then be necessary to reduce CO2 emissions quickly and also greatly reduce emissions of other greenhouse gases. This is very tight, especially since the changes already observed will increase, in particular the extremes of temperature, the intensity of precipitation, the severity of droughts, the increase in frequency and intensity of climatic events that are now rare, as activists point out, environmental.
"The message is urgent because we are dangerously close to breaching the 1.5-degree limit set in the Paris Agreement in 2015," Soros asserted. "We are already at 1.2 degrees and if we maintain our current course, global warming will reach more than 2.5 degrees around 2070."
Soros believes that we cannot afford it because we will then have crossed almost a point of no return.
"That would take us past several tipping points such as the melting of the Arctic permafrost. Once that happens, the amount of money needed to re-stabilize or repair the climate system grows exponentially," the billionaire warned. "The accelerating pace of climate change will also cause large scale migration for which the world is ill prepared.”
'Our Civilization Will Be Thoroughly Disrupted'
To illustrate some of the consequences of climate change of which he speaks, such as the rise in sea level or the melting of the ice caps, phenomena seen by environmental activists as irreversible for centuries or even millennia, Soros uses the example of Greenland.
"In July 2022, an extreme weather event occurred in Greenland. It was so warm that scientists there could play volleyball in short sleeve shirts and shorts," he said.
The billionaire added that: "The melting of the Greenland ice sheet would increase the level of the oceans by seven meters. That poses a threat to the survival of our civilization."
Based on the principle that human action contributes to destabilizing the climate system, the major donor of the Democratic Party ensures that to stop the damage we can no longer be satisfied with focusing on "mitigation" and "adaptation." That's why he's pushing for the use of the controversial experimental solar technology to prevent the Arctic from melting.
This consists of spraying aerosol into the stratosphere to reflect sunlight out of the earth's atmosphere. If some experts recognize that it can reduce global warming they also warn that this technology can affect the ozone layer.
"Unless we change the way we deal with climate change, our civilization will be thoroughly disrupted by rising temperatures that will make large parts of the world practically unlivable," Soros argued.
He said it was urgent to "reorient our international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank, to focus on climate change."
This latest proposal comes a day after the resignation of David Malpass, the president of the World Bank, who was a climate denier.
