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Climate research is one of the most politically-infused research avenues, among the likes of nuclear and genetically modified agriculture. There is money to be

Climate research is one of the most politically-infused research avenues, among the likes of nuclear and genetically modified agriculture. There is money to be made, and lost, depending on public outlook of our climate, and it has a lot of power when used to enforce political ends such as sanctions, subsidies, and could lead to such events like uprisings, occupying of countries and war. Most likely, if climate research is found to be far off the alarming predictions made by most institutions, we'll chalk it up to political meddling/statistical fubbing and move on. If the lifestyle changes for most of the polulation are already in place by then, many will believe it was "for the best, anyway", and I'm inclined to agree with this view - our response to climate change is more important than if climate change was primarily our fault to begin with. I'm not advocating for skewing research in favor of one position or the other, but it enables a public forum of such scale that at the very least, prepares us for dealing with ever-increasing scopes of global issues that impact all life on Earth, which will come in handy when we progress to the point we're dealing with the ethics of extremely advanced technology.

imtringued 7y ago
You're talking about what the media or politicians report. Things like "the climate crisis will come in 12 years" have usually no scientific basis and often are based on much more conservative predictions like 1.5C° warming cannot prevented after 12 years of "business as usual" because temperature increases lag CO2 emissions by several years. This doesn't actually mean that we will see 1.5°C warming within the next 12 years. It might even take 20 years or more. 1.5°C warming will suck but it's not the end of the world. It just means that we will have to adapt to a new way of living and we can't go back to the good old days.

imtringued 7y ago

You're talking about what the media or politicians report. Things like "the climate crisis will come in 12 years" have usually no scientific basis and often are based on much more conservative predictions like 1.5C° warming cannot prevented after 12 years of "business as usual" because temperature increases lag CO2 emissions by several years. This doesn't actually mean that we will see 1.5°C warming within the next 12 years. It might even take 20 years or more. 1.5°C warming will suck but it's not the end of the world. It just means that we will have to adapt to a new way of living and we can't go back to the good old days.