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> where one part of the world has experienced one of the severest droughts in the history of mankind, and the other the worst floods". Nothing happening today,

> where one part of the world has experienced one of the severest droughts in the history of mankind, and the other the worst floods". Nothing happening today, extrapolated out to 20 years with the most severe climate models, will be severe enough to cause the "end of the world". Anybody who's telling you we'll have total societal collapse by 2042 is out of touch with reality. The only way for things to go that badly that fast is for Earth to be hit by something big from space, but that is very unlikely to happen in any given 20 year period.

ncmncm 4y ago
You seem very certain of your facts. I can only say that you are probably right. But we don't know if the ocean ecosystem will collapse in that time, bringing down civilization. The thing about collapse is that it happens terrifyingly fast, and is only sometimes predicted accurately.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  Even if the oceans were utterly sterilized today, with all the atmospheric implications that go with that, it would take longer than 20 years for Sweden to no longer exist. I'm not saying that climate change won't cause huge environmental disasters and social unrest, because it will. I'm saying that "there won't be a planet left after 20 years" is extreme pessimism and unsupported by any model backed by science, even if you read that claim generously and assume "won't be a planet left" is merely hyperbole for the collapse of Swedish society.
  - ncmncm 4y ago
    Many people mistakenly or vaguely conflate global civilization with "the planet". The distinction doesn't really matter much, from a policy perspective.
locallost 4y ago
In case you haven't noticed, the planet stopped existing for thousand something Pakistanis that died in the floods, with two million homeless. The economic damage is estimated to be 40 billion. It will get worse. Billions of people will be directly affected. Soon, they will try to make their way to countries that are still kind of functioning (because they are rich), where people that are most responsible for climate change will label them "economic migrants", and say they don't have a right to come. So yes, there will probably be a planet, just not one that will be very pleasant for living. I don't think we have time for solutions that have failed to deliver for decades, need subsidies to be built, maintained and even shutdown, and take forever to get completed.

ncmncm 4y ago

You seem very certain of your facts. I can only say that you are probably right. But we don't know if the ocean ecosystem will collapse in that time, bringing down civilization. The thing about collapse is that it happens terrifyingly fast, and is only sometimes predicted accurately.

MichaelCollins 4y ago
Even if the oceans were utterly sterilized today, with all the atmospheric implications that go with that, it would take longer than 20 years for Sweden to no longer exist. I'm not saying that climate change won't cause huge environmental disasters and social unrest, because it will. I'm saying that "there won't be a planet left after 20 years" is extreme pessimism and unsupported by any model backed by science, even if you read that claim generously and assume "won't be a planet left" is merely hyperbole for the collapse of Swedish society.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  Many people mistakenly or vaguely conflate global civilization with "the planet". The distinction doesn't really matter much, from a policy perspective.

locallost 4y ago

In case you haven't noticed, the planet stopped existing for thousand something Pakistanis that died in the floods, with two million homeless. The economic damage is estimated to be 40 billion. It will get worse. Billions of people will be directly affected. Soon, they will try to make their way to countries that are still kind of functioning (because they are rich), where people that are most responsible for climate change will label them "economic migrants", and say they don't have a right to come. So yes, there will probably be a planet, just not one that will be very pleasant for living. I don't think we have time for solutions that have failed to deliver for decades, need subsidies to be built, maintained and even shutdown, and take forever to get completed.