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Life on Earth will be fine. The problem is the survival of our own species. It heavily relied in ~15,000 years of stable climate to flourish, and we're cutting

by DiThi 10y ago

Life on Earth will be fine. The problem is the survival of our own species. It heavily relied in ~15,000 years of stable climate to flourish, and we're cutting that stability short.

shouldbworking 10y ago
One thing I thought about a while back related to this. Predictions show that increased energy in the atmosphere results in stronger storms. Storms are not preserved in the historical record, so how bad will they be? The relationships between temperature and energy tend to be supralinear... Has anyone looked at common species from warm earth periods to predict storm severity? I remember reading that palm-like trees used to be the dominant type. These trees still are in island areas mostly because they are extremely resistant to storms. They have few leaves and thick trunks. Are we setting ourselves up for a future where average wind speeds are 5x higher and hurricane-like storms devastate the landscape every year or so?
- DiThi 10y ago
  Possibly. The problem is, we don't really know and it's a very dangerous experiment to figure out (by doing nothing and waiting). We at least know that if the ice keeps melting, the pace will only accelerate because it releases trapped CO2 and the change will be much faster.
Sharlin 10y ago
"Fine" in the sense that life survived the previous extinction events too. In the sense that Europe was "fine" after the world wars.
akvadrako 10y ago
It's not a foregone conclusion that a stable climate is more conductive to a flourishing society than a challenging one. Northern Europe, Japan and North America are roughly the most developed areas on Earth. They also have some of the most natural disasters and harshest weather.
- DiThi 10y ago
  Two of these three have low dense population. And harsh weather in those areas are not indicative of how tough will climate change be. After all, it has been about as harsh since humans inhabited those. But climate may get worse all over the world. A lot of people will have to migrate from coastal cities, both rich and poor.

by DiThi 10y ago

Life on Earth will be fine. The problem is the survival of our own species. It heavily relied in ~15,000 years of stable climate to flourish, and we're cutting that stability short.

shouldbworking 10y ago

One thing I thought about a while back related to this. Predictions show that increased energy in the atmosphere results in stronger storms. Storms are not preserved in the historical record, so how bad will they be? The relationships between temperature and energy tend to be supralinear... Has anyone looked at common species from warm earth periods to predict storm severity? I remember reading that palm-like trees used to be the dominant type. These trees still are in island areas mostly because they are extremely resistant to storms. They have few leaves and thick trunks. Are we setting ourselves up for a future where average wind speeds are 5x higher and hurricane-like storms devastate the landscape every year or so?

DiThi 10y ago
Possibly. The problem is, we don't really know and it's a very dangerous experiment to figure out (by doing nothing and waiting). We at least know that if the ice keeps melting, the pace will only accelerate because it releases trapped CO2 and the change will be much faster.

Sharlin 10y ago

"Fine" in the sense that life survived the previous extinction events too. In the sense that Europe was "fine" after the world wars.

akvadrako 10y ago

It's not a foregone conclusion that a stable climate is more conductive to a flourishing society than a challenging one. Northern Europe, Japan and North America are roughly the most developed areas on Earth. They also have some of the most natural disasters and harshest weather.

DiThi 10y ago
Two of these three have low dense population. And harsh weather in those areas are not indicative of how tough will climate change be. After all, it has been about as harsh since humans inhabited those. But climate may get worse all over the world. A lot of people will have to migrate from coastal cities, both rich and poor.