While I respect those who believe that their efforts will, nothing will actually prevent the conclusion that is for all practical purposes, “foreordained” (because of human stupidity and indifference, not because of anything else).

We are going to collapse from greed, indifference, overconsumption, pollution, agriculture, capitalism and a host of other ills particular to humankind. This is the stark, harsh truth and even harsher is it cannot now be avoided no matter what we do. We don’t have enough time, nor willpower, nor incentive to avoid this. We don’t even have the essential resources left now. And there is that small problem of a world population that cannot continue to be fed as our planet becomes uninhabitable.

I definitely suggest “we turn off the spigots” as fast as humanly possible, and everything else, because this is exactly the kind of global emergency response that mankind requires now.

I liked your comparison analogy. Here’s another one:

Headed towards planet Earth is a exceedingly large asteroid, capable of an ELE event (extinction level event). Because of the speed, size and technological response that would be required to actually do something about this, all of the nations of the world must combine their every effort into stopping this asteroid before it strikes the Earth. Doing nothing is unthinkable, as it would be akin to accepting total extinction of all life on Earth.

So the nations of the Earth combine their talents, resources and best efforts in one gigantic effort to save mankind and the Earth. Only by doing so does mankind stand a chance of success. And they only have one shot to get it just right, otherwise, all is lost.

This is exactly the situation facing the Earth now. We need an global emergency response, not pathetic “downsizing” efforts which are thinly disguised business-as-usual efforts, leaving the same players, nations and well-to-do continuing on as before.

We need to turn off ALL of the spigots, worldwide in an emergency global shutdown and a return to local sustainable practices. And we need to do this RIGHT NOW. Anything less is simply not going to work. The latest data already shows that we will achieve (because of existing inertia and continued practices) very dangerous levels of warming. The longer we delay a full tactical response, the more we guarantee our own destruction.

Just 2 degrees give us this (and much more, but I’ll be brief): “… even a “moderate” warming of 2°C stands a strong chance of provoking drought and storm responses that could challenge civilized society, leading potentially to the conflict and suffering that go with failed states and mass migrations. Global warming of 2°C would leave the Earth warmer than it has been in millions of years, a disruption of climate conditions that have been stable for longer than the history of human agriculture. Given the drought that already afflicts Australia, the crumbling of the sea ice in the Arctic, and the increasing storm damage after only 0.8°C of warming so far, a target of 2°C seems almost cavalier.”

This is the harsh truth of the reality we now all face, but it won’t be accepted until it is far too late. We are now facing 5 - 11 degrees (Fahrenheit) of warming. These are not survivable temperature changes for many reasons. The bottom line is habitat destruction (including ocean plankton) and the inability to feed displaced billions. We’re not going to move our farmlands north, the soils won’t support it, nor are their enough essential nutrients to fertilize (supplement) the soils left.

We’re in deep doo-doo and “turning off the spigots” is only the beginnings of what needs to be done.