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Poorer people are always worse off, that's true, but we're talking about global climate change and its effects can devastate anyone on the planet. The climate
by dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
Poorer people are always worse off, that's true, but we're talking about global climate change and its effects can devastate anyone on the planet.
The climate is a complex system into which more and more energy is being input. That's more likely to produce sudden, drastic and unpredictable changes. It's not just simply going to get hotter.
So it's entirely possible that huge swathes of the US become largely uninhabitable, due to, say, drastic increases in rain or violent weather. It's entirely possible that most current agriculture could become impractical in the US.
The politics of climate change has very likely made scientists too conservative in their predictions as to not seem hysterical, but looking at how quickly the climate is changing right now, extreme outcomes seem very likely.
- SilverBirch 4y agoWhat I'm really saying is that the obvious direct effects of climate change are likely going to be blamed on people. It's going to get to the point where a poor person can't live in Mumbai - literally, you can't survive exposure to the temperatures that are going to happen. But when those people move north to escape the heat, their migration is going to be blamed on all the things we blame current migration on, rather than the reality that they'd likely die if they stayed where they were. Oh and guess how many poor people there are in Mumbai.
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y agoI think in those circumstances it won't be so much migration but war. It's more likely the affected country will just invade a cooler, less well armed country and take what they need. This very issue has been raised by the US military as a security threat going forward.