SCIENCE
ECOLOGY & ENERGY
The Four Megaphenomena
28-year reduction of North Polar ice: a larger area than California & Texas has vanished.
In his well-documented book God’s Last Offer, Ed Ayres identified four ‘megaphenomena’—revolutionary changes sweeping the world and transforming everything. Prior to the industrial revolution, these phenomena had been stable for 100,000 years. Within the last few decades, they have ‘spiked’, creating an unprecedented danger for all life on Earth.
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The Four Megaphenomena The carbon gas spike The consumption spike The human population spike The extinction spike |
In 2007, the massive spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide reached 387ppm. This was accompanied by dramatic wildfires in Greece and California, and an unprecedented summer meltdown of North polar pack ice that some scientists interpreted as a tipping point.
The four megaphenomena are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Fossil fuels directly produced the carbon gas spike. Using these fuels increased agricultural productivity and permitted industrial developments that gave rise to spikes in human population and consumption. Through a positive feedback loop, population and consumption further increased the spike of carbon gas. These three spikes are synergistic causes of global warming and habitat destruction, producing the last spike, mass extinction.