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8 - Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2021

By
Usha Natarajan  and
Kishan Khoday
Edited by
Jean d'Aspremont  and
John Haskell
Jean d'Aspremont
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
John Haskell
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Summary

We live in a time of ecological change. Climate change is occurring alongside other interrelated environmental transformations. We are amid the biggest disruption to Earth’s nitrogen cycle in two and a half billion years, and a mass extinction of species for the first time in sixty-six million years. When it comes to climate, the last time there was this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was three and a half million years ago. Change on a scale unprecedented in human history combined with our inability to stem these trends thus far contributes to a sense of being at a tipping point – that unless these challenges are addressed effectively and soon, human life will become irrevocably unpredictable and volatile.

Type
Chapter
Information
Tipping Points in International Law
Commitment and Critique
 , pp. 132 - 148
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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