The article seems to completely forget about climate change. The current pandemic is going to look like a tiny speed bump in a few years when we start seeing re

The article seems to completely forget about climate change. The current pandemic is going to look like a tiny speed bump in a few years when we start seeing regular deadly heat waves, crop failures, and other natural disasters. Billions of people are going to be displaced, and we'll see wars for the remaining livable land. The effects of climate change are all around us already, and they're happening much faster than any of the models predicted: * new research indicates that parts of the Amazon and other tropical forests are now emitting more CO2 than they absorb https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-carbon-cycle-feedbacks-could-drive-temperatures-even-higher https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-carbon-cycle-feedbacks-co... * one billion people will suffer from “unliveable” heat within 50 years, study finds https://e360.yale.edu/digest/one-billion-people-will-suffer-from-unliveable-heat-within-50-years-study-finds https://e360.yale.edu/digest/one-billion-people-will-suffer-... * potentially fatal bouts of heat and humidity on the rise, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/08/climate-change-global-heating-extreme-heat-humidity https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/08/climate-... * study finds ocean ecosystems likely to collapse in 2020s and land species in 2040s unless global warming stemmed https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/08/wildlife-destruction-not-a-slippery-slope-but-a-series-of-cliff-edges https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/08/wildlife... * studies show drought and heat waves will cause massive die-offs, killing most trees alive today https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24042020/forest-trees-climate-change-deforestation https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24042020/forest-trees-cli... * multiple overlapping crises could trigger 'Global Systemic Collapse' https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-top-scientists-warn-combined-environmental-crises-will-cause-global-collapse https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-top-scientists-warn... * 246 academics call on government to act now to avoid global collapse https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/opinion/246-academics-call-government-act-now-avoid-global-collapse https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/opinion/246-acad... * Planet's largest ecosystems collapse faster than previously forecast https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15029-x https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15029-x World's oceans are also acidifying to a similar rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification#Rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification#Rate as the Permian extinction (but again in 100 years instead of 20k-60k), with an anoxic event https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event#Consequences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event#Consequences locked in after 1,000ppm or 360 gigatons https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170920182116.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170920182116.h..., which we will reach by 2100 at the latest. So that's whatever's left wiped out. And here's what's currently happening with food production. Two different groups of 200+ scientists and academics, separately from each other, each warned of near-term global collapse: * https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-top-scientists-warn-combined-environmental-crises-will-cause-global-collapse https://www.sciencealert.com/hundreds-of-top-scientists-warn... * https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/opinion/246-academics-call-government-act-now-avoid-global-collapse https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/02/04/opinion/246-acad... Examples of record-breaking crop failures currently happening: * https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/midwest-rain-climate-change-wrecking-corn-soy-crops/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/midwe... * https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/extreme-heat-wave-hits-us-farmers-already-suffering-from-flooding.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/19/extreme-heat-wave-hits-us-fa... * https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/15/australia-to-import-wheat-for-first-time-in-12-years-as-drought-eats-into-grain-production https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/15/austr... * https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/20/crop-failure-and-bankruptcy-threaten-farmers-as-drought-grips-europe https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/20/crop-fai... * https://www.zerohedge.com/health/historic-midwest-blizzard-has-farmers-seeing-massive-crop-lossesas-devastating-weve-ever https://www.zerohedge.com/health/historic-midwest-blizzard-h... * https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-02/low-rice-crop-leads-to-sunrice-job-losses/11566748?pfmredir=sm https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-02/low-rice-crop-lead... * https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/climate-change-could-cut-fruit-production-almost-third-study/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people... * https://phys.org/news/2019-12-climate-whammy-corn-belt.html https://phys.org/news/2019-12-climate-whammy-corn-belt.html * https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/12/britain-facing-potato-shortage-failure-dredge-rivers-led-flooding/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/12/britain-facing-p... * https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2019-08-01-drought-dam-drive-mekong-river-to-lowest-level-in-100-years https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2019-08-01-drou... * https://phys.org/news/2020-01-atlantic-circulation-collapse-british-crop.html https://phys.org/news/2020-01-atlantic-circulation-collapse-... * https://phys.org/news/2019-12-climate-threat-global-breadbaskets.html https://phys.org/news/2019-12-climate-threat-global-breadbas... * https://phys.org/news/2019-12-large-atmospheric-jet-stream-global.html https://phys.org/news/2019-12-large-atmospheric-jet-stream-g... Scientific studies projecting future crop failures: * Schlenker and Roberts, 2009. Nonlinear temperature effects indicate severe damages to US crop yields under climate change. PNAS, 106(37), pp.15594-15598 https://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15594.full https://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15594.full * Mora et al, 2015. Suitable days for plant growth disappear under projected climate change: Potential human and biotic vulnerability. PLoS bio, 13(6), p.e1002167 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002167 https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/jou... * Schauberger et al, 2017. Consistent negative response of US crops to high temperatures in observations and crop models. Nature Comms, 8, p.13931. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13931 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13931 * Sakschewski et al, 2014. Feeding 10 billion people under climate change: How large is the production gap of current agricultural systems?. Ecological modelling, 288, pp.103-111 https://booksc.xyz/book/30274837/03002c https://booksc.xyz/book/30274837/03002c * Liang et al, 2017. Determining climate effects on US total agricultural productivity. PNAS, 114(12), pp.E2285-E2292 https://www.pnas.org/content/114/12/E2285?collection= https://www.pnas.org/content/114/12/E2285?collection= News articles about projected crop failures: * UN says passing 2C will have a 'very high projected risk' of global food supply instabilities https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/news/climate-change-could-trigger-global-food-crisis-new-u-n-ncna1040236 https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/news/climate-change-could-trigg... * UN says passing 2C would cause 'multi-breadbasket failure' https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/climate/climate-change-food-supply.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/climate/climate-change-fo...) * UN says passing 2C would cause 60% of global wheat to be subjected to 'Severe Water Scarcity (SVS)' drought events https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/26/new-research-warns-severe-climate-related-droughts-could-threaten-60-global-wheat https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/26/new-research-wa... Given that our response to the pandemic has been to largely ignore the science and try to get back to business as usual and we're still largely pretending that climate change isn't happening, I don't really have much hope for continued existence of human civilization.