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    (Few) reasons to be cheerful

    Nov 06, 2022 7 minutes

    I can only admire Hamish McRae’s optimism for our future (“10 billion reasons to be cheerful”, October 29).

    Although I appreciate his honesty regarding climate change and mismanaged technological troubleshooting, it seems he does not factor in irreversible tipping points when predicting our perpetual growth towards the year 2050.

    We may indeed make progress to reduce our environmental impact. However, once tipping points are crossed, they cause cascading effects. For instance, new findings suggest parts of the Arctic Ocean are warming up to seven times faster than expected, and it may lose its sea ice entirely by 2035. When this happens, the ramifications are mind-boggling.

    With no ice to reflect sunlight, oceans will absorb much more heat from the sun. As a result, ocean currents will slow down, the jet stream in the atmosphere will become increasingly erratic, and weather patterns that we’ve relied on for agriculture and horticulture will no longer be predictable. Oh, and did I mention that as the permafrost melts, vast methane deposits will be released?

    In short, the planet becomes extremely hostile to human life. And, of course, this warming feeds other tipping points, of which 16 have been identified.

    So, I am dubious of McRae’s

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