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I love the optimism here, everyone always states this like the tipping point is sure to be in the future. TBH, it seems equally likely to me that the last year
by WJW 5y ago
I love the optimism here, everyone always states this like the tipping point is sure to be in the future. TBH, it seems equally likely to me that the last year we could seriously avoid major climate change was in the early 1990s.
- jacquesm 5y agoThat's very well possible.
- jjk166 5y agoClimate change is not a binary "no harm" vs "worst case" situation where you cross some magical tipping point from one to the other. It is a continuum where the more damage you do, the worse things will be. Even if we are already doomed to some major troubles in the future, there is never a point where it makes sense to give up because it can't get any worse - it can always get worse.
- vegetablepotpie 5y agoRight, but it’s not completely linear either. There are tipping points, such as a collapse of the arctic ice sheets, savannaization of the Amazon, arctic methane release, which could kick off their own positive feedback loops that cannot be stopped by humans. Certainly we can do things after that point, but we’ll see much more diminishing returns.
- AJ007 5y agoJames Lovelock's last books certainly would agree with this. Perhaps we may get lucky and some event could throw things the other direction, like a large meteor impact or wide scale nuclear weapons discharge (leading to a lengthy nuclear winter.)