Mass Extinction: Let’s Not

Published On: January 10, 2014

“Last Hours” is the first in a series of short films that explore the perils of climate change and the solutions to avert climate disaster.

Each subsequent film will highlight fact-based challenges facing the human race, and offer solutions to ameliorate these crises. The initial short film series will culminate in a feature film to be presented prior to COP21, the 2015 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris.

An asset for the climate change movement, “Last Hours” will be disseminated globally to awaken modern culture worldwide about the various dangers associated with climate change.

“Last Hours” describes a science-based climate scenario where a tipping point to runaway climate change is triggered by massive releases of frozen methane. Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has already started to percolate into the open seas and atmosphere from methane hydrate deposits beneath melting arctic ice, from the warming northern-hemisphere tundra, and from worldwide continental-shelf undersea methane clathrate pools.

Burning fossil fuels release carbon that, principally through greenhouse effect, heat the atmosphere and the seas. This is happening most rapidly at the polar extremes, and this heating has already begun the process of releasing methane. If we do not begin to significantly curtail the use of carbon-based fossil fuels, this freed methane threatens to radically accelerate the speed of global warming, potentially producing a disaster beyond the ability of the human species to adapt.

This first video is designed to awaken people to the fact that the earth has experienced five major extinctions in the deep geologic past — times when more than half of all life on earth vanished — and that we are now entering a sixth extinction. Industrial civilization with its production of greenhouse gases has the ability to trigger a mass extinction; in the extreme, it could threaten not just human civilization, but the very existence of human life on this planet.

The world community and global citizens urgently need to chart a path forward that greatly reduces green house gas emissions. To take action and follow the pathway to solutions to the climate crisis, you can explore this website and you can also sign-up for future updates. Thank you.

“Last Hours” is presented and narrated by Thom Hartmann and directed by Leila Conners. Executive Producers are George DiCaprio and Earl Katz. Last Hours is produced by Mathew Schmid of Tree Media Foundation, and was written by Thom Hartmann, Sam Sacks, and Leila Conners. Music is composed and performed by Francesco Lupica.

Peter Sinclair notes: Thom Hartmann has produced a pretty scary, but rather accurate, piece here.

I’ve been thinking about the fine line between creating a sense of urgency vs a sense of hopelessness. There a natural urge among some folks to cut right to the “hopeless” phase, without actually wanting to do something about the problem.

There’s a lot of internet chatter about imminent doom for human civilization.  And yes, I’m talking about you, Guy MacPherson.
This is, first of all, incorrect. Secondly, not helpful.
Even the worst case scenarios in the fossil record played out over millennia, and  the experts I’ve talked to are pretty clear that no one, or at least very few, are expecting any kind of catastrophic single event in the coming few decades.
Important to remember that projected climate change impacts are a bell curve, as Stephen Schneider used to say, with “good for you” at one end, and “end of the world” on the other.  Both those extremes are the most unlikely scenarios – but there’s a whole lot of that curve on this side of “end of the world” that we would still very much not like to see happen.

Planet Earth is going to take a hit in the coming century. It falls mainly to the generation of human beings currently alive to decide if that’s going to be a 5 percent hit, a 50 percent hit, or a 90 percent hit. URL

Visit http://lasthours.org

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About the Author: Chris Machens

Chris Machens
Chris covers the climate since 2011, and when not posting articles to the site he usually works on our next video production.
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    Santimvah
    11 years ago

    The collapse in sea ice is the result of a vicious cycle of sea ice retreat, exposure of more water to warming, and further melt. This cycle became apparent, when the observed sea ice extent started to deviate from the IPCC models from 2007 which projected the sea ice lasting into the next century.

    See this graphic: http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg46/SamCarana/85524386763845-625_zps60cd5cfb.jpg “Observed and Projected Arctic September Sea-Ice extent” based on IPCC AR4

    The sea ice retreat is already having an effect on the world climate system, as witness the increase of climate extremes over the past decade. The way this happens is explained in this video: A New Climate State: Arctic Sea Ice 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYaubXBfVqo by Yale Climate Forum.

    Note the ending from Dr Francis of Rutgers University: “The climate system is changing in front of our very eyes. You do not have to be a climate scientist. I like to hope that, if there is a silver lining in all of this, it is helping people to wake up and realise this is a big problem. It is happening now. It’s not happening generations from now. And we need to start doing something about it.”

    The speed of this change is very alarming. Look at this graph of sea ice volume, showing a trend to ZERO for September 2015 – a month of ice-free Arctic Ocean: PIOMASS Exponential Trend (Ziang & Rothreek 2007) http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg46/SamCarana/85637858946-625_zpsa8d19ad4.png
    Info from Arctic Methane Emergency Group – Arctic Sea Ice – Methane Release – Planetary Emergency – Sea ice crashes – AMEG was right http://ameg.me/index.php/2-ameg/42-sea-ice-crashes-2

    ‘We’re F#cked!’ Conceptualising Catastrophe July 13, 2013
    The inspiration for this came from Stephen Emmott’s recent sell-out play 10 Billion. At the end of the play, having reviewed the different ways in which humanity has altered Earth’s climate, the Oxford professor (and expert in complex natural systems) states ‘I think we’re already fucked’. This is a sentiment that has been surfaced by others, including US geophysicist Brad Werner in a conference paper last year. Indeed, short of the expletive, the theme of humanity’s suicidal trajectory in the Anthropocene has been highlighted by writers such as Clive Hamilton, Mark Lynas and George Monbiot. This has been reinforced with increasing urgency by scientists around the world, with US climate scientist James Hansen this week publishing a paper highlighting that ‘conceivable levels of human-made climate forcing could yield the low-end runaway greenhouse effect’ including ‘out-of-control amplifying feedbacks such as ice sheet disintegration and melting of methane hydrates’.
    http://climatepeopleorg.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/were-fcked-conceptualising-catastrophe/

    On carbon transport and fate in the East Siberian Arctic land–shelf–atmosphere system (2012)
    Igor P Semiletov, Natalia E Shakhova, Valentin I Sergienko, Irina I Pipko, and Oleg V Dudarev.
    http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/7/1/015201/pdf/1748-9326_7_1_015201.pdf

    Assessing ‘‘Dangerous Climate Change’’: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature by James Hansen et al. May 2013
    “Methane hydrates – methane molecules trapped in frozen water
    molecule cages in tundra and on continental shelves – and organic
    matter such as peat locked in frozen soils (permafrost) are likely
    mechanisms in the past hyperthermals, and they provide another
    climate feedback with the potential to amplify global warming if
    large scale thawing occurs [209–210]. Paleoclimate data reveal
    instances of rapid global warming, as much as 5–6C, as a sudden
    additional warming spike during a longer period of gradual
    warming [see Text S1]. The candidates for the carbon injected
    into the climate system during those warmings are methane
    hydrates on continental shelves destabilized by sea floor warming
    [211] and carbon released from frozen soils [212]. As for the
    present, there are reports of methane release from thawing
    permafrost on land [213] and from sea-bed methane hydrate
    deposits [214], but amounts so far are small and the data are
    snapshots that do not prove that there is as yet a temporal increase
    of emissions. ”
    http://www.plos.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/pone-8-12-hansen.pdf

    Related on Climate State
    http://climatestate.com/2014/01/09/thawing-permafrost-could-release-vast-carbon-deposits-diseases/
    http://climatestate.com/2014/01/03/usgs-climate-hydrate-interactions/
    http://climatestate.com/2013/12/23/permafrost-methane-time-bomb/

    http://climatestate.com/2014/01/08/melting-point-greenland-2012-documentary/
    http://climatestate.com/2014/01/05/antarcticas-ice-loss-on-the-rise-december-2013/
    http://climatestate.com/2013/12/21/abrupt-climate-change-in-the-arctic-and-beyond-an-update/
    http://climatestate.com/2013/11/22/arctic-sea-ice-minimum-volumes-1979-2013/
    http://climatestate.com/2013/08/05/greenland-anomaly-late-season-melt-pulse-methane-emissions-august-4th-2013/
    http://climatestate.com/2013/07/29/greenland-ice-sheet-starting-to-slip/

    energyquicksand
    energyquicksand
    11 years ago

    This is the ultimate human IQ test! Are we going to get a failing grade?
    The price will be high, indeed.

    Nicodin Bogdan
    Nicodin Bogdan
    11 years ago

    “Last Hours” is the first in a series of short films that explore the
    perils of climate change and the solutions to avert climate disaster. Each
    subsequent film will highlight fact-based challenges facing the human race,
    and offer solutions to ameliorate these crises. The initial short film
    series will culminate in a feature film to be presented prior to COP21, the
    2015 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris.

    An asset for the climate change movement, “Last Hours” will be disseminated
    globally to awaken modern culture worldwide about the various dangers
    associated with climate change.

    “Last Hours” describes a science-based climate scenario where a tipping
    point to runaway climate change is triggered by massive releases of frozen
    methane. Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has already started to
    percolate into the open seas and atmosphere from methane hydrate deposits
    beneath melting arctic ice, from the warming northern-hemisphere tundra,
    and from worldwide continental-shelf undersea methane clathrate pools.

    Burning fossil fuels release carbon that, principally through greenhouse
    effect, heat the atmosphere and the seas. This is happening most rapidly at
    the polar extremes, and this heating has already begun the process of
    releasing methane. If we do not begin to significantly curtail the use of
    carbon-based fossil fuels, this freed methane threatens to radically
    accelerate the speed of global warming, potentially producing a disaster
    beyond the ability of the human species to adapt.

    This first video is designed to awaken people to the fact that the earth
    has experienced five major extinctions in the deep geologic past — times
    when more than half of all life on earth vanished — and that we are now
    entering a sixth extinction. Industrial civilization with its production of
    greenhouse gases has the ability to trigger a mass extinction; in the
    extreme, it could threaten not just human civilization, but the very
    existence of human life on this planet.

    The world community and global citizens urgently need to chart a path
    forward that greatly reduces green house gas emissions.

    “Last Hours” is presented and narrated by Thom Hartmann and directed by
    Leila Conners. Executive Producers are George DiCaprio and Earl Katz. Last
    Hours is produced by Mathew Schmid of Tree Media Foundation, and was
    written by Thom Hartmann, Sam Sacks, and Leila Conners. Music is composed
    and performed by Francesco Lupica.

    http://lasthours.org/

    Last Hours

    Occupy The Polls
    Occupy The Polls
    11 years ago

    *Last Hours*

    Last Hours” is the first in a series of short films that explore the perils
    of #climateChange and the solutions to avert climate disaster.

    #HappyHalloween

    Patti Fanizza
    Patti Fanizza
    11 years ago

    This 10-minute film describes a science-based scenario where runaway
    climate change is triggered by massive releases of frozen methane… and
    the melting of these trillions of tons of carbon is already underway.

    graham mewburn
    graham mewburn
    11 years ago

    LAST HOURS
    .
    A thought provoking documentary
    Last Hours

    Ceejae Devine
    Ceejae Devine
    11 years ago

    Think you can’t DO ANYTHING to help the ENVIRONMENT?

    You can > VOTE for Democrats. Recycle. Stop buying stuff you don’t need.
    Travel less. Eat organic food.

    I am astounded we have to keep talking about some of this. Like recycling.
    I see so many recyclables in my local garbage. What has happened? Why isn’t
    everyone recycling everything or taking their own cups etc. to events? &
    the only way we are going to get the green energy changes our world needs
    is by policy change.

    Everyone oohs and ahhs when they see the beauty of our world, but then it
    seems like brains switch off when people have to DO anything to help it.
    THE PLANET NEEDS OUR HELP NOW.

    IMPORTANT > Last Hours Video by Thom Hartmann

    Lone Wolf
    Lone Wolf
    11 years ago
    Dale Lanan
    Dale Lanan
    11 years ago

    Carbon budget is shot, likely shot before COP 15 Copenhagen Dec 09 ended.
    Full force of human endeavor needs to be brought in spades using Act of God
    Real to force Thermodynamically HZ age. Lag time and pulse of heat rise
    hitting clathrate stability zone won’t be easily be reversed. There is
    huge greenhouse hysteresis and planet shift underway. It is from below and
    above and in movement of sky and Sea

    Vaughn Haynes
    Vaughn Haynes
    11 years ago

    Interesting. kinda frightening if correct

    OceanicEstate
    OceanicEstate
    11 years ago

    It’s possibly too late to correct these issues, 400 ppm Co2 is a death
    sentence if we do not pump it out within 50 years. However if we stop
    burning CO2 now it will avoid runaway just barely but we would still end up
    with massive sea level rises and droughts.

    Alex S
    Alex S
    11 years ago

    We need to frame this as “Humans are killing themselves” in order for
    people to act. This helps to end the “pansy environmentalist” narrative
    capitalists continue to perpetuate. Even a selfish person wants to
    prevent their own death.

    Aleque
    Aleque
    11 years ago

    All I hear is “blablabla”.. only talk. No action.

    MarkMc03
    MarkMc03
    11 years ago

    My only concern with this film is that illustrations showing the current
    configuration of continents existing at the time of the great Permian
    extinction undermines the film’s scientific credibility. I understand,
    however, that most people looking at an image of Pangea, the supercontinent
    which existed at that geologic time would not necessarily associate it with
    the world as we know it, but they could have superimposed the continents’
    traced familiar shapes in order to make that point.

    This is too important a matter to quibble over something as minor as this,
    but given the vehemence of the opposition, I’d hate to give them something
    as simple and obvious as that to point to.

    Citizens Climate Lobby Bangladesh
    Citizens Climate Lobby Bangladesh
    11 years ago

    This is the most urgent message!! Be aware now!!

    Pier Bover
    Pier Bover
    11 years ago

    At this point the only thing that can help us crash less violently, is a
    radical and extreme change in our lifestyle. As long as we keep demanding
    energy and industrial products, there will be a corporation that will
    provide it to us.

    Jón Steinar
    Jón Steinar
    11 years ago

    This scare hysteria borders on the comic. This so over the top that it’s
    impossible to take it seriously. You even managed to top Al Gores comedy of
    mass hysteria. Quite a feat.
    You are definently not doing your cause a favor. Actually, this must be
    helping the opposite camp quite a bit.
    Pathetic.

    Brad Vietje
    Brad Vietje
    11 years ago

    Great info, and nicely presented.

    Your scientific credibility will be enhanced if you keep the Earth turning
    the correct way, though (@~2:35 and again @ ~2:46). Do you suppose you
    could get Jess & Derek to re-visit those sections?

    James Skarnikat
    James Skarnikat
    11 years ago

    I have posted similar videos on my Facebook and of my 800+ friends, maybe 2
    or 3 would ‘like’ it or share it, demonstrating our disinterest in these
    all important matters and pretty much quashing any hope I have humanity can
    change fast enough.

    dovlication
    dovlication
    11 years ago

    CLIMATE CHANGE is coming whether you WANT IT OR NOT. humans have nothing to
    do with it. AL GORE and other UN criminals are trying to pin the guilt onto
    humans and make us sacrifice our freedoms (NWO, carbon currency,
    chemtrails) thinking we got the climate on our conscience and we have to
    save the planet when in fact the planet cant and wont be saved FROM the
    climate changes. climate changes are occuring because they should be
    occuring. its the planetary cycle ffs. WE DIDNT PROVOKE IT. C02 is absorbed
    by water and it doesnt cause climate change. it is happening on itself and
    we can do nothin about it. it is normal. the real problem are the global
    elite who are making the world suffer! IF YOU WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET GET
    RID OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE POLUTING IT INTENTIONALLY FOR ECONOMICAL REASONS!
    = CORPORATIONS!

    Avian Eddy
    Avian Eddy
    11 years ago

    we need to bypass many phases and deal with this NOW. currently we are
    caught up in denial, judgment, and intransigence… all resulting in
    INACTION :(

    AmerikanTube
    AmerikanTube
    11 years ago

    Yeah sure,scientists will save us, just as science invented the automobile,
    the a-bomb and all the other garbage that has gotten us to this cul-de-sac.
    Maybe scientists at Tepco will be our heroes !

    AmerikanTube
    AmerikanTube
    11 years ago

    Nice. Guy McPhersons describes over 20 irreversible positive feedback loops
    already triggered and thus irreversible human near-term human extinction.

    maxrupo
    maxrupo
    11 years ago

    in Italian: /watch?v=FZixJE3uhXw

    OceanicEstate
    OceanicEstate
    11 years ago

    Good call

    james street
    james street
    11 years ago

    Barack Obama: “In an effort to control global warming, due to methane
    emissions, I have signed into law, by executive order, that all citizens,
    legal, illegal or otherwise, will be required to fart in a bottle from now
    on.”

    AGreen Road Project
    AGreen Road Project
    11 years ago

    Can you make this creative commons license? Thanks for sharing.. Sad..

    PentaMaker
    PentaMaker
    11 years ago

    This is a message to both radical sides of the argument. How about you
    stop watching these types of videos which try get you in trans with this
    weird music and finally for once listen what the climatologists have
    actually to say.

    J Meiring Borcherds
    J Meiring Borcherds
    11 years ago

    Very interesting and informative video…

    Jón Steinar
    Jón Steinar
    11 years ago

    This must be a parody.

    Synergetic Press
    Synergetic Press
    11 years ago

    Underground, underwater and below the ice.
    A time bomb is ticking.
    Scientists are seeing the evidence.
    Runaway climate change could be closer than we think.

    Brad Neustaedter
    Brad Neustaedter
    11 years ago

    And before I go to bed, some cheerful news.

    Also, a handy website that summarizes our situation:

    http://planetextinction.com/

    Dorr Asset Management
    Dorr Asset Management
    11 years ago

    We cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence that shows we impacting our
    environment in negative ways. http://ow.ly/pHuTd

    Gary Gauthier
    Gary Gauthier
    11 years ago

    Based on this, as they say in the movie “Snatch”, I’d say we’re pretty much
    fucked.

    Youssef Bahammi
    Youssef Bahammi
    11 years ago

    Science is science.
    Last Hours

    TheSyndicateInfo
    TheSyndicateInfo
    11 years ago

    Thanks Tom for you dedication…

    MrCoffeeFiend
    MrCoffeeFiend
    11 years ago

    I am fine with nuclear power, but you cannot build a nuclear plant in 6
    days. It will take a few years before any new power plants (nuclear or
    otherwise) are up and running to replace the coal plants shutting down.

    MrCoffeeFiend
    MrCoffeeFiend
    11 years ago

    Go to the climate4you website and on the left side select “Climate Models.”
    (should be 3 from the bottom) If you can’t understand all of it make sure
    you read the last section on “Computer models and the real world.” It
    explains the problem with what you stated.

    artoffacts101
    artoffacts101
    11 years ago

    don’t worry Vierotchka,even then I still wouldn’t eat you,by that time we
    will be enlighten to a higher conscious one way or another

    louis stalker
    louis stalker
    10 years ago

    google ARTIC NEWS for more info.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    Nuclear, my friend, nuclear.

    Luis Fisch
    Luis Fisch
    11 years ago

    This is a real & silent threat.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    Computers do the nasty calculations we don’t like. Take 1835720*901284932,
    I can’t say I’d enjoy doing that, if it needed to be done. Computers don’t
    do the thinking for us, we do the thinking, and, after telling to computers
    our thinking, they do the nasty calculations, which we could do, but, to
    save time, and effort, we don’t. I daresay that when checking your expenses
    on your credit card you don’t add it up in your head. (cont)

    MrCoffeeFiend
    MrCoffeeFiend
    11 years ago

    Governments keep the ability to produce power higher then demand. Its this
    crazy idea that if something bad should happen we would like to still have
    power to deal with the catastrophy. The UK is going to have a bunch of coal
    fired plants shut down for good in 2014 for the reasons you stated. The
    result will be that the energy reserve will be lowered from the 20% they
    like to keep it at to 5%. They are expecting rolling blackouts when those
    renewables aren’t producing in full.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    charged very little for power, majority of people would switch to them,
    making it harder for coal power plants to get any form of revenue, and
    making it easy for the government to buy back the power stations(not
    exactly like this). Then they replace them all with Nuclear / renewables,
    and could sell them back to private companies (if they really wanted to),
    and not allow the building of any coal stations. It would be very hard on
    people financially, but in the long run it would most likely help.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    Did you hear about the Permian mass extinction? Life almost didn’t survive
    that, and it was because of climate change.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    And you’re 100% correct, the climate has always changed, and always will
    change, but never this rapidly. Not once in human history have we seen
    400ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. We can’t know what will happen based off
    calculations done off the top of our head, we need computers to crunch the
    numbers so we can analyse them and apply them to the world. And, as a side
    note, it is rather difficult to determine how species are dying, its mostly
    conjecture and hypothesis.

    kerxham
    kerxham
    11 years ago

    I stopped watching when he said that climate change could end all life on
    earth. Don’t get me wrong, climate change is a real threat to humanity and
    many species but it wouldn’t mean the end of all life on earth. Life has
    survived way worse. Even if it’s only bacteria and other simple organisms,
    life on earth will go on. We are at a weird adolescent stage where we can
    destroy ourselves but not a planet.

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    In Australia, we have privatised power (really stupid, I know), if the
    government where to slam the power industry with a massive carbon tax /
    carbon pricing scheme, it would instantly force the highest polluters out
    of business, and, if the money that was gathered from this tax / pricing
    scheme was used to support businesses, then they could survive. Pushing the
    most polluting power stations out of business and replacing them with gov.
    ones, with a gov. operated power distributor, that (cont)

    acomputer121
    acomputer121
    11 years ago

    “Fertilizer and construction” = pollution. Not CO2 pollution, but still
    pollution. And, as far as I know, Climate Change has been around since the
    industrial revolution, it was hypothesized even back then. maybe not
    accurately, but the general idea was put forward. And you’re right, no one
    can know, because this is the first time anything like it has happened in
    the course of human history. Computer’s are the best chance of knowing what
    will happen.