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Alternative to suffering from rising temperatures is adapting to them. Lowering emissions is also going to cause suffering and might be as effective as blasting

Alternative to suffering from rising temperatures is adapting to them. Lowering emissions is also going to cause suffering and might be as effective as blasting (into general direction of an) asteroid with a water cannon.

adrianN 5y ago
"Adapting" to higher temperatures will mean moving at least tens of millions of people away from their homes because the area becomes inhospitable. Large refugee streams tend to cause a lot of suffering, both for the refugees as well as in the countries where they go to.
- soco 5y ago
  Let's take a step back and look at the entire picture: Earth is not only people. Where can we move the refugees if the bees are dying off?
- falcrist 5y ago
  As climate undergoes significant shifts and certain regions become more or less habitable, there will be wars over resources. It's essentially inevitable that conflict will arise under such circumstances. "Large refugee streams" is really an understatement. The US Department of Defense has done risk analyses regarding this exact topic. Here's one that got some media attention: https://media.defense.gov/2021/Oct/21/2002877353/-1/-1/0/DOD-CLIMATE-RISK-ANALYSIS-FINAL.PDF https://media.defense.gov/2021/Oct/21/2002877353/-1/-1/0/DOD...
JoeAltmaier 5y ago
We probably can't adapt fast enough. Change sea level a few inches - coral reefs die off and start regrowing at the new optimal shore location. It takes 100 years to rebuild. Meanwhile fish populations oscillate. When they are low, people (2B of them) go hungry. Hungry people protest, governments change or fall, wars start. Remember those thousands of Syrian refugees that caused such a stir? That was a few thousand people. Raise that to 10,000, then 100,000, then 1M, then 10M, then 100M. We have no conceivable way to humanely cope with worldwide upset of that magnitude. If it comes to pass, it will surely collapse civilization. As it has repeatedly in the past - Mayan, Babylonian, everybody throughout human history. And that's just fish.

adrianN 5y ago

"Adapting" to higher temperatures will mean moving at least tens of millions of people away from their homes because the area becomes inhospitable. Large refugee streams tend to cause a lot of suffering, both for the refugees as well as in the countries where they go to.

soco 5y ago
Let's take a step back and look at the entire picture: Earth is not only people. Where can we move the refugees if the bees are dying off?
falcrist 5y ago
As climate undergoes significant shifts and certain regions become more or less habitable, there will be wars over resources. It's essentially inevitable that conflict will arise under such circumstances. "Large refugee streams" is really an understatement. The US Department of Defense has done risk analyses regarding this exact topic. Here's one that got some media attention: https://media.defense.gov/2021/Oct/21/2002877353/-1/-1/0/DOD-CLIMATE-RISK-ANALYSIS-FINAL.PDF https://media.defense.gov/2021/Oct/21/2002877353/-1/-1/0/DOD...

JoeAltmaier 5y ago

We probably can't adapt fast enough. Change sea level a few inches - coral reefs die off and start regrowing at the new optimal shore location. It takes 100 years to rebuild. Meanwhile fish populations oscillate. When they are low, people (2B of them) go hungry. Hungry people protest, governments change or fall, wars start. Remember those thousands of Syrian refugees that caused such a stir? That was a few thousand people. Raise that to 10,000, then 100,000, then 1M, then 10M, then 100M. We have no conceivable way to humanely cope with worldwide upset of that magnitude. If it comes to pass, it will surely collapse civilization. As it has repeatedly in the past - Mayan, Babylonian, everybody throughout human history. And that's just fish.