Internationally renowned journalist Gwynne Dyer warns Concordia students about climate change

On Monday evening, International Affairs journalist, Gwynne Dyer, spoke to Concordia students about the effects of climate change. He said that if the global temperature rises by two degrees, human kind is in big trouble. This could happen in just 20 to 25 years.

Dyer said that once we’re there, even if we turn off all of our emissions, there will be literally nothing we can do; there will be no turning back. At the current rate, the earth is looking at an ice-free arctic by 2030.

That means sunlight will no longer be reflected by ice, but rather, it wll be absorbed by the water. According to Dyer, this will drastically reduce global food supply especially for countries close to the equator.

Mexico, for instance will not be able to feed their booming population, and may have to mass immigrate to the US. But, in this doomsday scenario outlined by Dyer, the US would close their borders completely. Across the world, wars would break out between countries that share rivers, and those upstream like here in Canada will try to hold their precious natural resources.

What has led to this crisis, according to Dyer? Burning fossil fuels for two hundred years. But don’t panic, there is still a chance to save the planet, he said. We jest need to act fast. Dyer finished with a warning,  “If we had time, we could fix this without breaking a sweat, the issue is, we don’t have time.”