this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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collapse of the old society
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They, much like you, are missing the point. We went from dinosaurs to cataclysmic post impact winter and life survived just fine. In fact, our species managed to evolve along the way, ice ages and super volcanoes be damned. Nothing humanity can do will "kill all life on the planet" or whatever other stupid shit they're pedaling these days. We're the hardest species to kill on this planet by FAR given any sort of prep time. Humanity will almost certainly survive whatever the climate can throw at us. And life in general survived everything short of another planet thrown at it so far. Things are just going to change. And life will adapt.
You are missing the point. You literally said "we're the hardest species to kill on this planet by FAR given any sort of prep time". Well, our prep time is running right now. We've theorized about this potential catastrophy for almost 2 centuries and have had pretty solid understanding of it happening for half a century. What have we done in that time? Jack shit. Considering we're just wasting our prep time I certainly wouldn't be as confident as you are about us surviving. And even if we do survive our lives will be worse off, all because some oil execs chose to run a disinformation campaign so their profits wouldn't take a hit and people like you with their IDGAF attitude constantly derailing the issue.
We have a good thing here that we are certain to ruin because apparently we don't need to make sure that good thing sticks around as just surviving is good enough, right?
I agree though it always annoys me when people claim we've done absolutely nothing - it's an incredibly hard problem and people in and out of governments have been working on solutions and implementing them where possible. It takes time to develop workable technologies and to implement them efficiently but in a lot of places this is happening and we should highlight things that are working and showing promise so that good ideas spread, just saying 'everything is bad and we're going to die' isn't going to convince anyone to get on the right side of things but demonstrating we have lots of great ideas and emerging solutions which offer benefits even beyond climate protections just might.
from a study showing we can reach 100% renewable energy usable globally before 2050, and that's just based on current rollout of existing technologies using existing methods and economies - automated construction tooling and fully-automated fabrication is going to greatly boost the rate at which adoption of new technologies can happen, and that's without any black-swan developments which might come about especially through the use of AI r&d tools (such as those making huge leaps in chemistry and pharmacology currently) - though again as the study demonstrates we don't even need these things to come about, and while our focus absolutely should be on protecting the ecology and climate of the planet we probably don't even to have everyone onboard because transition to wind and solar is economically sensible too.
Albania, Iceland, and Paraguay already obtain all their electricity from Renewable sources (hydro mostly), Sweden is getting close to 70% and very much on track to reach it's target of 100% before it's 2040 goal, Costa Rica is up at about 98% Renewables, Scotland ~97% with them on track to generate 50% of overall energy consumption (transport, heat, electrical) from renewables - big industrial countries are making huge progress too, Germany is now over 50% renewable and heavily ramping up the rate of adoption, on par with China who are also just over 50% and increasing rapidly (after heavy investment in technology and infrastructure to facilitate this change) - even the united states now has [slightly] more generation from renewables than coal AND more nuclear than coal -
Calling this 'jack shit' is absurd, and it's only one strand of all the things people and governments have been working on, we're working hard to understand the problem, monitor it, develop and implement solutions which allow us to try and keep things working for everyone and keep everyone alive. It's not like we can just turn off oil or something, not only would millions die but it would undoubtedly start endless wars which would result in even more widespread chaos and climate destruction while ending all the positive steps people are working on. It's an incredibly difficult challenge but we're equipped to deal with it and if everyone that cares tries to pitch in a bit and work towards a better world then it's absolutely possible - defeatism and doomerism isn't going to get us anywhere.
The planet is going to change. No matter what we do to it, it will heal. Period. Without question. Humanity is so hyperfocused on controlling everything around us, we forget that we don't matter nearly as much as we think we do. I dont think you comprehend the force the planet and all life on it withstood when the dinosaurs died out. Humanity ain't shit compared to that. We are not the masters of the universe. We're just another species on a single rock out of quadrillions. Check out what CO2 levels were 150million years ago and tell me that the earth will never recover from car emissions lmfao
Do you want to survive the next 50 years? Yes, the planet will be fine. Do you want some semblance of government that can manage day to day migration crises for want of food, lack of water, and oh yeah, continuous war over basic resources. But yes, the planet will be fine.
What about your children or if no child, your families descendants or any future human for that matter to enjoy what we've been spoiled with for our entire lives? And yes, I know... The planet WILL be fine. But we won't be and a lot of other species will go well before us... Many have gone already.
This person is so enlightened that they probably don't see the difference between stubbing one's toe and global nuclear annihilation
Humanity will be fine. We've survived ice ages before, and I'm sure we'll do so again. Suffering is a given. You are living in complete ignorance if you don't believe there is suffering in your very own city right now this moment, no matter where you live in the world. Would there be more if governments collapsed and wars raged all over the world? Sure. But there is and will never be any period of "no suffering". In fact, a massive population decline might very well lower the average suffering of the survivors for a while due to resource surplus. The point here is that humanity is not the end all be all of perspectives. Cataclysmic for us can be the dawn of a golden age for someone else. Give octopus or dolphins a shot.
So you're frustrated by climate change alarmists because even if civilization collapses there will still likely be humans in a cave somewhere, and the octopus might have a shot at taking over the world?
Fortunately most people aren't so horribly misanthropic; we actually care what happens to people.
I'm frustrated with climate alarmists because they are too busy alarmistizing the conversation to actually get productive about solutions. The only way we will ever see progress towards stabilizing our climate is when something other than human is in charge. I, for one, welcome our future robot overlords with open arms. We have thousands of years of history to prove to anyone with the eyes to see that humanity cannot be trusted to care for itself. AI is the best bet we have as long as we actually manage to birth the machine gods before we put ourselves back into the caves.
pretending that scientists' warnings and fears are exclusively about how climate change will 'kill all life on the planet' is entirely disingenuous
sure, there was still life after chicxulub. 75% of all species disappeared off the face of the earth, incomprehensible amounts of death and suffering, but there was still life
sure there will probably still be life, and humans, by the time this is done. the earth will be left unrecognisable, we will lose serious parts of global ecosystems, the number of animals going extinct will rise even more, diseases will thrive, food shortages will be everywhere, some cities will become uninhabitable, there will be ridiculous civil unrest, incomprehensible numbers will die
but yeah therell probably be humans left
If things get desperate enough direct conflict between nuclear powers of basic resources like food and water could be a thing as well. Sure, life will survive. Microbes for sure. Abyssal creatures probably won't notice too much of a difference if they aren't oxygen starved before then (not sure about how much of a risk that is)? Some species or plants and animals are hardy enough to survive and some will get lucky.
Exactly. The way we live now is unsustainable, but not for the planet. It's unsustainable for us. When a global ecosystem collapses, a new one will grow in to fill the void. Life abhors a vacuum. Unfortunately for humanity, it also abhors hoarding. Our systems of hoarding will break down and the everyone has the big sad about it. Humanity has had every chance to worry about the bigger picture but has consistently chosen short term profit over longterm sustainability pretty much since we started writing shit down. I just wish we'd be more like the great central American cultures and accidentally leave behind a bunch of bitchin rainforest. Probably more like a bunch of mad max style endless badlands. Great for lizards, not so much the hairless water chimps.
I wish I could comprehend what point you’re actually trying to make.
On one hand you’re criticizing climate change folks over being alarmists. On the other hand you admit that modern day civilization is pretty much fucked.
Are you in capable of seeing that people are scared that very soon they could be starving to death? I think about this every day and there isn’t a single thing I can do about it. I can’t change how the world works. I can’t change our emissions. Instead I just sit here and watch the world burn. Meanwhile I can’t help but think about my future in which I’ll likely be literally burning and starving to death.
Yet you can’t understand the sensationalism over it and why regular people are alarmed? You can’t possibly be this daft.
Regular people are not alarmed. They still buy fireworks, go on road trips, and consume like they've been taught their entire lives. The select few that ARE alarmed can't do anything with a system built from the ground up to reward indifference to the environment. You need to worry about your fellow man a lot more than you need to worry about hunger or fire if you are privileged enough to even be a part of this conversation. And that's the whole problem. Humanity, as a species, is violent, duplicitous, and primarily motivated by self enrichment. The best thing we as a species could do for the cosmos is build the machines that will keep us occupied here instead of strip mining the stars. We can't be trusted with not destroying the universe to make the ultimate fidget spinner.
That’s cool. Enjoy starving to death since apparently you don’t care
Starvation is time inefficient and not a robot overlord approved liquidation process.
Crop failures will disagree
Good thing the crops won't be in charge. We should praise our benevolent future robot overlords.
Ya it’s hard to be in charge when you’re dead
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons even standby may die. Thinking machines just need a little energy and boom, right back to life.
Absolute gibberish
Better to be a gibberer than to be gibbed.