By Michael Lee Simpson via SWNS
A leading climate expert and former White House advisor says the planet is rapidly approaching “a point of no return” – which could be as soon as 2030.
Dr. Christian Komor, 65, is sounding the alarm about the irreversible damage caused by carbon and other greenhouse gasses.
Prompted by global warming, the climate change expert from Colorado warned the planet is rapidly approaching a tipping point.
“Down the road, we’ll likely see wildfires like we’re already seeing in the Western United States and especially Canada,” Dr. Komor, a former White House advisor during the 2021 explains.
“The biggest problem is, there’s going to be flooding,” he adds.
“Like right now in Africa. Five nations are inundated by floods; their crops are going to be knocked out.
“Who knows how long that’s going to last, but it’s going to cause famine.
Dr. Komor emphasizes the overwhelming combination of disasters that will cripple nations across the globe: “When you start to add multiple outcomes together — floods, famine, fires — it starts to overwhelm.
Those five African nations are already calling for assistance. They’re saying, ‘Help, we’re overwhelmed, we can’t keep up with this.’
And that’s what we’re going to start seeing all over the world, including here in the United States.
“Right now, we’re being protected by our affluence, but FEMA’s [Federal Emergency Management Agency] budgets are running out every year in late summer, early fall.”
The feedback loops developing in the environment due to global warming are a major concern for Dr. Komor.
“As permafrost melts, it not only draws in more solar radiation but also releases methane back into the atmosphere.
“It’s a reciprocal cycle, a negative feedback loop — though scientists call it a positive feedback loop because it’s a positive forcing of the environment into a place where it shouldn’t go.”
By the mid-2030s, Dr. Komor warns that these feedback loops will have driven the planet to a point where it may be too late to reverse course.
“Researchers have found that every time in our planet’s history we’ve passed the 450 parts per million threshold, the Earth shifted its ecological balance. Every time this threshold was crossed, most species — including humans — ended up extinct.”
The world, according to Dr. Komor, is rapidly approaching this critical threshold. “We’re speedily approaching 450 parts per million of carbon dioxide by the mid-2030s.
“Once we pass that point, there will be no turning back. However, right now, we can still control the outcome — if we act immediately.”
Dr. Komor believes that humanity missed a key opportunity to combat climate change decades ago.
“If we had started back in the ’70s and ’80s, when James Hansen addressed Congress, we could have built solar panels and made the shift to alternative energy and sustainable practices, which is great.
“But we needed that decades ago. We’ve continued to accumulate carbon and methane in the atmosphere, and it’s accelerating.
“At this point, the only way to get out of this situation is artificially. We created the situation artificially, and we’re going to have to fix it artificially.”
Fortunately, recent advancements provide a glimmer of hope. “In the past few years, researchers have developed something called direct air carbon removal. There are several facilities — about a dozen — operating around the world.
The U.S. Department of Energy is involved, giving grants to startups. We can actually draw carbon down from the air, clean it, and use the carbon to make products like cement.
“Cement manufacturing is currently a major greenhouse gas contributor, so this technology could completely turn that industry around.”
However, Dr. Komor believes the government’s approach to direct air carbon removal lacks urgency. “Right now, the Department of Energy is treating carbon removal like it treats any new business they want to incentivize — they’re giving out grants. But think back to World War II.
“If, as the Nazi Blitzkrieg was sweeping across Europe, the Department of Defense had offered grants to startup militias, we would all be speaking a different language by now. It wouldn’t have worked. We need large-scale mobilization.”
Dr. Komor is actively working to raise awareness and push for immediate action. “I’m going to talk to Sheldon Whitehouse, chairman of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, later today.
We need to get the word out that our government has to put the money in to do this work, and if we don’t, the cost is going to be greater later — and we will pass a point of no return.”
