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No reason not. It would push human habitable zones into the high mid-latitudes and subpolar regions though. 55–65° N/S would be closest to comfortable tempera
by timschmidt 5mo ago
No reason not. It would push human habitable zones into the high mid-latitudes and subpolar regions though. 55–65° N/S would be closest to comfortable temperatures. So, northern Canada and Russia, Greenland, Antarctica.
The mad rush to get there would likely extract a heavy toll.
- rwyinuse 5mo agoThe main problem is agriculture. If rain patterns get severely disrupted in most of world's current breadbaskets, it takes time to increase production in areas that may now have more favourable climate. During that time lots of people would starve. Rain patterns and extreme weather events are the things to really worry about. Temperature changes alone can be mostly dealt with by planting different crops.
- timschmidt 5mo agoNo doubt the transition period would likely involve more death than most catastrophes in history. In part because there are simply more people. Available sunlight is also less nearer the poles, which already affects agriculture in places like Greenland. Crops would shift. We'd be more dependent on energy and supplemental light for certain crops. Adjustment would be difficult. But quite a bit of land would still be habitable.
- Throaway199999 5mo agoDisease and parasitic life would also explode in all previously-habitable parts of the Earth due to increased temp.
- reverius42 5mo agoOh, yeah, like even if it's survivable for humanity in general, it's going to kill billions of humans.
- apothegm 5mo agoIt’s not just about time to increase production. A lot of crops that grow at lower latitudes won’t have enough time to mature in the short summers of higher latitudes and may suffer from weaker sunlight due to the lower angle resulting in more intervening atmosphere. We might eventually be able to breed or genetically modify crops to be hardier — but the former takes time and the latter requires sufficient remaining civilization and security to support the labs.
- reverius42 5mo agoInteresting. Paying close attention to geopolitics lately, it kind of seems like we're already in a slow-motion mad rush to own these places. Remember when Trump almost invaded Greenland?
- timschmidt 5mo agoCertain investment firms purchased cold-weather ports which were iced in 8 months a year, 20 years ago, which now operate nearly year-round.
- reverius42 5mo agoSounds like a good long term investment. And maybe not that long term!
- justinclift 5mo ago> Remember when Trump almost invaded Greenland? That one may not be out of the woods yet.
- exe34 5mo ago> The mad rush to get there would likely extract a heavy toll. Climate refugee situation will dwarf any war refugee issues. They claim "invasion" now, but this one will be an actual invasion.