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Flailing attempts at geoengineering will come later, after it becomes clear to even the thickest person that we're desperately screwed.
by M_Grey 10y ago
Flailing attempts at geoengineering will come later, after it becomes clear to even the thickest person that we're desperately screwed.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- beedogs 10y agoAnd, shortly thereafter, mass extinction of the human race and most other multicellular life.
- M_Grey 10y agoProbably, yes. It's looking more and more like 'The Great Filter' hypothesis is valid, and the filter is in our relatively near future. That said, I'm sure tardigrades, bacteria, plenty of fungi and the like won't even notice.
- adrianN 10y agoThe planet has been warmer in the past and supported multicellular life.
- senorjazz 10y agoThat isn't quite the same as the human race with it's current standard of living is it. "don't worry everyone, there will still be slime in the seas"
- hueving 10y agoWill they? It seems it would just trigger migrations inland away from rising sea levels. The significant improvements in agricultural technology over the last 100 years likely means it wouldn't significantly impact the ability to grow food in countries rich enough to have the ability to geoengineer in this manner, so it might not happen.
- M_Grey 10y agoLook at North Africa and the Middle East... so much of the conflict now is driven at least in part by climate change. Where there's desperation for water and food, troubles that might have been just below the surface explode. Climate change isn't just sea levels rising, it's changing climates; some places with desert will green, some green places will turn to desert. It's already started.
- hueving 10y ago>Look at North Africa and the Middle East... so much of the conflict now is driven at least in part by climate change. I haven't seen this claim made before, do you have any links to read more? I was under the impression that nearly all of the conflict is driven by things like terrible government structures and ideological extremism (e.g. ISIS). >Climate change isn't just sea levels rising, it's changing climates; some places with desert will green, some green places will turn to desert. Right, but that's why I pointed out that countries with advanced agriculture technologies wouldn't be impacted nearly as hard and those are the same countries with the means to geo-engineer.
- m_mueller 10y ago> I haven't seen this claim made before, do you have any links to read more? Here you go. Tl;dr: Syria had a longterm drought before the conflict started, leading to rising food prices and about one million Syrians without livelihood by 2011. https://climateandsecurity.org/2012/02/29/syria-climate-change-drought-and-social-unrest/ https://climateandsecurity.org/2012/02/29/syria-climate-chan...
- joe_the_user 10y agoSyrian Civil War was very much driven by climate. Essentially a portion of agriculture failed due to drought and a lot of the population fled to the central city, setting off fighting. You are correct there's a world food surplus so mostly countries with large farming populations would be impacted. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/a-major-contributor-to-the-syrian-conflict-climate-change/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/a-major-contributor...
- bottled_poe 10y agoClose but not quite - the trigger for change will be falling profits. The powerful few will decide our fate.
- M_Grey 10y agoProfits don't just fall, the fortunes of some rise while others fall. In the worst case, the fortunes of warlords and tyrants rise. Until the absolute end, there is always someone profiting from human misery.