2 ms·
> Climate change is a potential problem but not existential While I agree climate change is not "existential" (at least not for humans, possibly for many other
by shkkmo 5y ago
> Climate change is a potential problem but not existential
While I agree climate change is not "existential" (at least not for humans, possibly for many other species and societal structures) it is definitely more than a "potential" problem.
> and not something we can't handle with our current technological understanding.
I think the degree to which our current technology is able to "handle" the amount of warming we have locked in is highly debatable and depends entirely on what you consider acceptable costs/loses in handling it.
- ThomPete 5y ago99.999% of all species ever existed was wiped out by the climate way before we arrived. That's always a danger as nature doesn't care about us. The way we combat that is not to minimize our impact on the planet but maximize it by creating general knowledge which can be used to come up with even better solutions that we have today. We have never been as safe from the climate as we are right now. The number of climate related deaths have plummeted the last 100% years. This is done through the use of energy and technology which is responsible for saving many more lives than killing them. In fact most people wouldn't be around here today if it wasn't for our use of energy and impact on the planet. So we could ask the same question back. How many current lives are those who want to stop our current impact on the planet ready to let die in return for speculative issues in the future where we would be much richer and have even better technologies to handle any issue. I think far too many people haven't actually sat down and thought this through but are mostly caught in short term thinking while telling themselves they are telling long term.