George Soros says the planet has reached a tipping point
Billionaire investor George Soros has said he fears for the future of humanity unless more radical action is taken to combat climate change.
In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Soros supported the idea of using experimental geosolar technologies to protect the Arctic from melting and an overhaul of international finance to address the challenge ahead.
The melting of the Greenland ice sheet “poses a threat to the survival of our civilization,” he said, according to prepared remarks ahead of a speech Thursday. Current efforts to stem rising temperatures are failing and the planet is increasingly at risk of reaching a tipping point, he said.
Human activities have caused global temperatures to increase by around 1.2°C on average since pre-industrial times. At current emissions levels, the planet is on track to warm by about twice the 1.5°C limit set by countries in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Soros advocated geosolar technology as a way to deal with the climate crisis – an idea proposed by scientists such as former British scientific adviser David King. The concept is often viewed as a last resort in combating global warming, as it involves physically altering the Earth’s atmosphere to reflect more sunlight back into space, or increase the amount of solar radiation that can escape.
King’s proposal would create white clouds to duplicate the reflectivity of Arctic ice — known as the “albedo effect,” Soros said in his presentation, which included a short film on the subject.
Soros also said that there needs to be a “realignment of our international financial institutions, particularly the World Bank” to ensure that enough resources are spent on dealing with climate change.
The warning comes as World Bank President David Malpass announced plans to step down by mid-year, giving the Biden administration a chance to pick someone to overtake the global development lender to focus more on fighting global warming.
Inaction could put humanity on a path where “the amount of money needed to restabilize or repair the climate system grows exponentially,” Soros said.
“Our civilization is being profoundly disrupted by rising temperatures that will make large parts of the world virtually uninhabitable,” he said.
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