Even by the standards of the dire predictions given in climate studies, this one’s extreme: civilization itself could be past the point of no return by 2050. 

That’s the conclusion from Australian climate think tank Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, which released a report (pdf) May 30 claiming that unless humanity takes drastic and immediate action to stop the climate crisis, a combination of food production instability, water shortages, and extreme weather could result in a complete societal breakdown worldwide. 

“We must act collectively,” retired Australian Admiral Chris Barrie writes in the foreword to the new study. “We need strong, determined leadership in government, in business and in our communities to ensure a sustainable future for humankind.”

Though the paper acknowledges that total civilizational collapse by 2050 is an example of a worst-case scenario, it stresses that “the world is currently completely unprepared to envisage, and even less deal with, the consequences of catastrophic climate change.”

David Spratt, Breakthrough’s research director and a co-author of the group’s paper, told Vice‘s tech vertical Motherboard that “much knowledge produced for policymakers is too conservative,” but that his new paper, by showing the extreme end of what could happen in just the next three decades, aims to make the stakes clear. 

“Because the risks are now existential, a new approach to climate and security risk assessment is required using scenario analysis,” said Spratt. 

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The paper called on national security forces in Australia and across the world to step up to the challenge presented by the crisis.