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The Climate Crisis Is Worse Than You Can Imagine

19 points by 8bitsrule 6y ago

s1artibartfast 6y ago
Unfortunately, our political and social climate is incapable of having an honest discussion of the topic, although not for the reasons proposed in the article. Sure, cognitive dissonance plays a part, but even those who get past that can't agree on what the core values should be with respect to climate and how to go about it. It is somewhat ironic that a few post down there is a sub from a harvard geoengineer titled "Harvard solar geoengineer defends plans for a poisoned sky " Meanwhile, The US has spent enough on "stimulus" in 2020 to go completely green, and will likely do it again in 2021.
JackMorgan 6y ago
Finally this explains to me how my friend has felt for the last decade. He can't in good conscience reproduce, knowing that he will almost certainly die in the food riots to come. Obviously, he says he cannot "time the market", but it seems clear only small remnants of humanity will be left once we hit a tipping point where food costs exceed our remaining energy stores. When that happens, discussions of Cold war era "first strikes" will be revived by those who hold the nukes. The coming collapse of modern civilization has been talked about since before we were born. Everyone just laughs as those original predictors grew old and died, thinking the predictors were wrong, when in reality we're just incapable of dealing with future risks of this magnitude and long timeline. We are watching a crash happen that spans longer than a human lifespan, therefore most of us are unable to even comprehend the danger. Maybe 1% of us see it. I should be carving this in stone for future historians to dig up, not write it in a server that will be certainly destroyed. Sadly other than reducing his footprint and not reproducing, pretty much all my friend has is weed and short term distractions to keep him alive and sane. He says he's sorry he's not smart enough to know how to save humanity, just smart enough to know we're doomed. He says he would just take the early exit and reduce his footprint further, but there's too much joy in the lives of his loved ones to hurt them that way. They wouldn't understand, they don't see it yet, or think the world burning is prophesied and can't be altered. So he's trapped, but he can distract himself sufficiently well and toke when he cannot. I'm truly sad for my friend, and sad for all of us.
- s1artibartfast 6y ago
  Depending on where your friend's location and economic position, it sounds like his concerns could be overblown with respect to doom and certain death. Global warming will be a major economic problem and hit developing economies particularly hard, but not an existential threat for humanity. Ecological devastation will be widespread but not unprecedented on geologic timescales. Agricultural disruption will be a problem but has clear mitigations.

19 points by 8bitsrule 6y ago

Unfortunately, our political and social climate is incapable of having an honest discussion of the topic, although not for the reasons proposed in the article. Sure, cognitive dissonance plays a part, but even those who get past that can't agree on what the core values should be with respect to climate and how to go about it. It is somewhat ironic that a few post down there is a sub from a harvard geoengineer titled "Harvard solar geoengineer defends plans for a poisoned sky " Meanwhile, The US has spent enough on "stimulus" in 2020 to go completely green, and will likely do it again in 2021.

JackMorgan 6y ago

Finally this explains to me how my friend has felt for the last decade. He can't in good conscience reproduce, knowing that he will almost certainly die in the food riots to come. Obviously, he says he cannot "time the market", but it seems clear only small remnants of humanity will be left once we hit a tipping point where food costs exceed our remaining energy stores. When that happens, discussions of Cold war era "first strikes" will be revived by those who hold the nukes. The coming collapse of modern civilization has been talked about since before we were born. Everyone just laughs as those original predictors grew old and died, thinking the predictors were wrong, when in reality we're just incapable of dealing with future risks of this magnitude and long timeline. We are watching a crash happen that spans longer than a human lifespan, therefore most of us are unable to even comprehend the danger. Maybe 1% of us see it. I should be carving this in stone for future historians to dig up, not write it in a server that will be certainly destroyed. Sadly other than reducing his footprint and not reproducing, pretty much all my friend has is weed and short term distractions to keep him alive and sane. He says he's sorry he's not smart enough to know how to save humanity, just smart enough to know we're doomed. He says he would just take the early exit and reduce his footprint further, but there's too much joy in the lives of his loved ones to hurt them that way. They wouldn't understand, they don't see it yet, or think the world burning is prophesied and can't be altered. So he's trapped, but he can distract himself sufficiently well and toke when he cannot. I'm truly sad for my friend, and sad for all of us.

s1artibartfast 6y ago
Depending on where your friend's location and economic position, it sounds like his concerns could be overblown with respect to doom and certain death. Global warming will be a major economic problem and hit developing economies particularly hard, but not an existential threat for humanity. Ecological devastation will be widespread but not unprecedented on geologic timescales. Agricultural disruption will be a problem but has clear mitigations.