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It's not just depressing, it's ruinous. We will be ruined as a species from this. I'm still pressing a head with my personal contribution by cladding our new h

It's not just depressing, it's ruinous. We will be ruined as a species from this. I'm still pressing a head with my personal contribution by cladding our new house in panels!

nomel 2y ago
This is an unpopular question, where people assume things about me, but by what mechanism would the human species be ruined? It seems that would require that all innovation towards climate mitigations stops, when it hasn't really even started yet. Reversing climate change probably isn't going to happen, but mitigation is still on the table, from routing fresh water from wetter northern climates to desalinization plants [1] to sun shading [2]. [1] Desalinization, where 300 million are currently services: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/desalination https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci... [2] Block 2% to reduce warming by 1.5C. https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-six-ideas-to-limit-global-warming-with-solar-geoengineering/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-six-ideas-to-limit-glo...
- foobarian 2y ago
  Perhaps once all the easy obtainable fossil resources are gone, and climate change settles down on a new equilibrium, humanity will also settle on a long-term sustainable way of living. Perhaps that will even be a civilized way, but it may also well end up a hunter-gatherer existence akin to what Europeans found in North America a few centuries ago.
  - nomel 2y ago
    > but it may also well end up a hunter-gatherer existence akin to what Europeans found in North America a few centuries ago. How could finding naturally growing plants eventually be more successful than technological innovations around agriculture, in a drier climate (our future)? This doesn't seem logical/rational, since every desert civilization moved away from a hunter-gather existence. Irrigation has existed for millennia, invented by people that lived in dry places [1], because it wasn't optional. [1] https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/815/1/1070.pdf https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/815/1/1070.pdf

It's not just depressing, it's ruinous. We will be ruined as a species from this. I'm still pressing a head with my personal contribution by cladding our new house in panels!

nomel 2y ago

This is an unpopular question, where people assume things about me, but by what mechanism would the human species be ruined? It seems that would require that all innovation towards climate mitigations stops, when it hasn't really even started yet. Reversing climate change probably isn't going to happen, but mitigation is still on the table, from routing fresh water from wetter northern climates to desalinization plants [1] to sun shading [2]. [1] Desalinization, where 300 million are currently services: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/desalination https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/sci... [2] Block 2% to reduce warming by 1.5C. https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-six-ideas-to-limit-global-warming-with-solar-geoengineering/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-six-ideas-to-limit-glo...

foobarian 2y ago
Perhaps once all the easy obtainable fossil resources are gone, and climate change settles down on a new equilibrium, humanity will also settle on a long-term sustainable way of living. Perhaps that will even be a civilized way, but it may also well end up a hunter-gatherer existence akin to what Europeans found in North America a few centuries ago.
- nomel 2y ago
  > but it may also well end up a hunter-gatherer existence akin to what Europeans found in North America a few centuries ago. How could finding naturally growing plants eventually be more successful than technological innovations around agriculture, in a drier climate (our future)? This doesn't seem logical/rational, since every desert civilization moved away from a hunter-gather existence. Irrigation has existed for millennia, invented by people that lived in dry places [1], because it wasn't optional. [1] https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/815/1/1070.pdf https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/815/1/1070.pdf