3 ms·
Why don’t you do the research yourself and find out? Unless you think you know the answers, in which case go ahead and cite your sources. The truth is generall
by youareostriches 7y ago
Why don’t you do the research yourself and find out? Unless you think you know the answers, in which case go ahead and cite your sources.
The truth is generally: humans have contributed to most of the warming since the beginning of the industrial revolution considering the near-doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere and that climate sensitivity is between 3.5 and 5.5°C. (https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL083574 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019...)
If humans disappeared tomorrow, three things would happen:
1. The surface of the planet would immediately warm by at least 1°C due to the lack of pollution-sourced atmospheric aerosols (such as sulfur) from planes, ships, coal plants, etc.
2. The temperature would decline, but do so very very slowly due to CO2 remaining in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. (https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/10/SPM1_figure-final-e1541758557589-947x1024.png https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2018/10/SPM1...) This is why some sort of long term geoengineering involving carbon removal will probably be necessary even after halting all emissions.
3. Wild plant and animal populations would immediately begin to recover as their native habitats re-grew.
And yes, I agree: Capitalism is the best system for destroying our natural environmental as efficiently as possible — what some would call “the externalized costs of economic growth”. This system has clearly proven itself unworkable. Sure, maybe with enough regulation we could have equilibrated capitalism within the bounds of our ecosystem, but those changes would have needed to been made decades ago. Now, no more time remains even for reform.