5 ms·

Yeah we will adapt, but not fast enough.

734129837261 7y ago
We will. We always do. There is no reason to assume we won't. The wealthy westerners will not notice because of air conditioning and endless bottled water. The less wealthy ones will suffer the heat a bit more. The poor ones will be taken care of. Third world nations will suffer. Some might die. Maybe many. But humanity will adapt. We might lose a few hundred million in the next few decades until their folks find new places to live, and we westerners will suffer an influx of refugees, and we'll be just fine once again. The population of the planet will continue growing to about 20 billion during the worst of the climate change. And we'll be without ice caps. And we'll be fine.
- bdamm 7y ago
  We'll be "fine" if you consider endless resource-based regional conflicts, along with the political upheaval, mass starvation, boosted extremism, and the large scale conflicts that will arise as a result, "fine". We'll be "fine" in the sense that "some human DNA will still be operating in 1000 years". That is a very low bar for human achievement to aim for, and for my children's sake, I hope we do better than that.
- HelloMcFly 7y ago
  This is perhaps the worst, most hubris-filled comment I've ever read on this site. That's not hyperbole, I mean that literally. It is this certainty that fills me with despair for the future. Forgive me if I'm not willing to get into a lengthy debate on the merits of your comment, if that's your starting point then it's hard to believe it's worth the effort.
- dvorak365 7y ago
  > We might lose a few hundred million in the next few decades > And we'll be fine. Maybe we should then consider how to prevent hundreds of millions of deaths in the meantime? Like, the holocaust didn't lead to the extinction of humans as a whole, but there's a good amount of literature around what should've been done differently to prevent it in the first place, and that's an order of magnitude fewer deaths than what you're forecasting.
- meesles 7y ago
  To be fair, there's no reason to assume we will be fine either. Our timeline is pretty short and humanity has hardly ever had to face a climate event on the scale that people expect will happen: some kind of massive ice-age event and/or rising seas taking out coastal land, where a majority of humans live. Not to mention there's billions more people on earth than there were for any similar previous events (they weren't similar, we didn't have cars). Healthy skepticism is great, but personally I'd rather not our entire species die off because a majority of people assume we will be fine!
- onion2k 7y ago
  The wealthy westerners will not notice because of air conditioning and endless bottled water. The really wealthy westerners are spending their money inventing ways to leave Earth. That might be a clue to whether or not they believe aircon and bottled water is going to be enough to save their way of life.
- beat 7y ago
  20 billion is half again higher than the worst predictions for population growth. The world's population is expected to peak around 11B in 2100 or so, with outside high predictions up to 14B. On what basis do you believe the population will hit 20B, especially with birth rates plummeting to near-replacement levels all around the world? What countries are going to go backwards, and why?
- pantalaimon 7y ago
  Where do you expect food to come from without an ecosystem that supports the crops we are farming right now?
  - kjsbfkjbf 7y ago
    Wealthy westerners not understanding that their standard of living exists exclusively because of the rape of the third world. People need to try being self sufficient for even a week.

We will. We always do. There is no reason to assume we won't. The wealthy westerners will not notice because of air conditioning and endless bottled water. The less wealthy ones will suffer the heat a bit more. The poor ones will be taken care of. Third world nations will suffer. Some might die. Maybe many. But humanity will adapt. We might lose a few hundred million in the next few decades until their folks find new places to live, and we westerners will suffer an influx of refugees, and we'll be just fine once again. The population of the planet will continue growing to about 20 billion during the worst of the climate change. And we'll be without ice caps. And we'll be fine.

bdamm 7y ago
We'll be "fine" if you consider endless resource-based regional conflicts, along with the political upheaval, mass starvation, boosted extremism, and the large scale conflicts that will arise as a result, "fine". We'll be "fine" in the sense that "some human DNA will still be operating in 1000 years". That is a very low bar for human achievement to aim for, and for my children's sake, I hope we do better than that.
HelloMcFly 7y ago
This is perhaps the worst, most hubris-filled comment I've ever read on this site. That's not hyperbole, I mean that literally. It is this certainty that fills me with despair for the future. Forgive me if I'm not willing to get into a lengthy debate on the merits of your comment, if that's your starting point then it's hard to believe it's worth the effort.
dvorak365 7y ago
> We might lose a few hundred million in the next few decades > And we'll be fine. Maybe we should then consider how to prevent hundreds of millions of deaths in the meantime? Like, the holocaust didn't lead to the extinction of humans as a whole, but there's a good amount of literature around what should've been done differently to prevent it in the first place, and that's an order of magnitude fewer deaths than what you're forecasting.
meesles 7y ago
To be fair, there's no reason to assume we will be fine either. Our timeline is pretty short and humanity has hardly ever had to face a climate event on the scale that people expect will happen: some kind of massive ice-age event and/or rising seas taking out coastal land, where a majority of humans live. Not to mention there's billions more people on earth than there were for any similar previous events (they weren't similar, we didn't have cars). Healthy skepticism is great, but personally I'd rather not our entire species die off because a majority of people assume we will be fine!
onion2k 7y ago
The wealthy westerners will not notice because of air conditioning and endless bottled water. The really wealthy westerners are spending their money inventing ways to leave Earth. That might be a clue to whether or not they believe aircon and bottled water is going to be enough to save their way of life.
beat 7y ago
20 billion is half again higher than the worst predictions for population growth. The world's population is expected to peak around 11B in 2100 or so, with outside high predictions up to 14B. On what basis do you believe the population will hit 20B, especially with birth rates plummeting to near-replacement levels all around the world? What countries are going to go backwards, and why?
pantalaimon 7y ago
Where do you expect food to come from without an ecosystem that supports the crops we are farming right now?
- kjsbfkjbf 7y ago
  Wealthy westerners not understanding that their standard of living exists exclusively because of the rape of the third world. People need to try being self sufficient for even a week.