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Yeah, a lot of climate activism is just wildly out-there, an I mean specifically the "life on earth will end" and Extinction Rebellion type groups. Thing is, w
by martythemaniak 5y ago
Yeah, a lot of climate activism is just wildly out-there, an I mean specifically the "life on earth will end" and Extinction Rebellion type groups.
Thing is, what's actually at stake - modern industrial civilization - is scary enough on it's own. Under the worst scenarios, the planet will be fine, the environment will be fine, life will be fine, even humans will continue to live. But bad climate scenarios have the potential to throw humans back into pre-industrial times (and populations) and critically - do so permanently. Easy coal and oil resources are gone, so the industrial revolution cannot happen a second time. Pre-industrial civilization also can't support all the people on earth today, so this necessarily means mass casualties.
This is all very scary and very real on it's own without the need for hyperbolic embellishment.
- rhino369 5y agoEven crashing back to pre-industrial civilization doesn't make sense. Climate change is fast on a geological scale, but its not that fast on a human scale. It might be shocking if Phoenix is uninhabitable in 100 years, but it barely even existed 100 years ago. Famines and water shortages will be localized. So while individual nations might collapse for a while and some areas might even depopulate, it won't happen all at once.
- dwaltrip 5y agoTo be clear, even this would be an unprecedented catastrophe. Civilization would go on in some form, but hundreds of millions, maybe billions of people, would suffer immensely and many would die from famine, war, disease, etc.