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> Environmental concerns are selfish. That's overstating it. Yes, life will go on. But it's not only us that will die - as you say, much of the marine ecosyst
by Scarblac 3y ago
> Environmental concerns are selfish.
That's overstating it.
Yes, life will go on. But it's not only us that will die - as you say, much of the marine ecosystem will die off, we're not the only animal that has problems with wet bulb temperature (most don't even sweat), and humanity isn't going to die of starvation before we make everything remotely edible out there extinct first.
Life is going to look extremely different, it's not just us.
- exoverito 3y ago[flagged]
- silverquiet 3y agoI’d note that stellar output was significantly lower during the Carboniferous and there’s a lot of range between the Earth’s current climate and Venus that are still really bad. I don’t entirely disagree with the religious thing, but what always struck me as the most bizarre belief was denial of the basic science of climate change; did people really believe that humanity could dump unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere with no consequence?
- arp242 3y ago> The apocalyptic climate change visions where we end up like Venus are unscientific It is. It's also a fringe belief that's not held by anyone serious speaking on the subject.
- adastra22 3y agoWho do you listen to speaking on the subject? It is brought up constantly. You can have a documentary on TV about climate change without bringing up Venus as a cautionary tale, for example. People who concern themselves with climate change genuinely think it will lead to mass human die offs, in my experience.
- api 3y agoIt could lead to mass die offs but due to starvation, extreme weather events, and most of all war. If we reacted with calm rationality we’d probably adapt pretty well but we’re not likely to do that. One refugee crisis to Europe has just about brought on the return of fascism, and that’s minor compared to what major climate change might cause. Climate change will be like AIDS or anaphylactic shock. You won’t die of it. You’ll die of the stuff it causes.
- adastra22 3y agoOr it could lead to global economic upheaval as the trade balances radically change, but people still being fed and governance not falling apart. Prediction is as much based on the data as yours. You can dial back the alarmism.
- Scarblac 3y agoYes, but it's not only climate change this time. We are also massively overusing every natural resource there is. We're in a mass extinction event and we would be in it even if there wasn't a CO2 problem at all.
- adastra22 3y agoThere are effectively no limits to natural resources, as accessible resources are a function of technology and market price. And the solar system is vast. Get out of the Malthusian thinking trap.
- nuancebydefault 3y agoI'm pretty sure they meant 'selfish' in a positive way, to emphasize that we are not aiming to 'save the planet', we should save ourselves. If we all die, the planet and its ecosystems will be fine eventually anyways, they still have about 4 billion years to restore itself.
- throwuwu 3y agoThat’s still a shortsighted view, regardless of human activity or presence other species will continuously go extinct including mass extinctions. That’s the entire history of life, evolution and extinction. The only way to intentionally prevent extinctions is with human intervention but humanity has to be around and technologically advanced and rich enough to do such things. It’s one of those put your own oxygen mask on first situations.