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We have lost the race to "stop" climate change and the issue becomes much broader than cutting emissions. We should accelerate our move away from fossil fuels to renewables as much as possible but that should be done regardless of the climate crisis. The question now is how to mitigate climate change damages. How to move our agriculture 'belts" to conform to climate change. How do we find, conserve, or produce clean water resources in arid climates? How do we manage millions of climate refugees? How will we manage tropical diseases and pandemics? Sea levels are rising and infrastructure like rail lines, sewage plants, port facilities, and some airports will need to be moved or protected. The winter ice belt is creeping north into former snowy areas. Where I live, the warmer climate creeps north several miles each year. This year we are experiencing the climate formerly 10 or 20 miles south from past years. We will be able to grow palm trees in a couple decades. We might be able to mitigate the extreme impact of climate change by curbing emissions, but we are at the mercy of one major volcanic eruption or ongoing forest fires to undo what short-term progress we make.
This is the biggest challenge to the survival of modern civilization in centuries if not millennia. Climate change is a natural thing, probably accelerated by human activity, but likely to overtake any human efforts to stop it now. Intransigence is not the way out of this problem. We hear voices every day telling us how bad or how fast the climate is changing and what damage is taking place. We don't hear voices telling us what is being done to mitigate the effects of climate change. Things are being done but we need to hear about them more.
Catastrophic climate change is inevitable and there is nothing we can do about it. Far too late for the minor tweaks that are being proposed to really have any significant effect.
It all comes back to the fact that human intelligence is a characteristic that will ultimately be extinguished or blunted via the law of natural selection. Sapiens intelligence evolved to ensure the survival of mankind but in the end it will lead to the self-destruction of much of human civilization. Whether it is from weapons of mass destruction or climate change remains to be seen but it is coming.
The ultimate irony is that human beings continue to believe that somehow we will be able to reason or bargain our way out of the natural disaster that is coming. At this point it's like trying to stop the rotation of the earth or to prevent the tides of the ocean. Only a fantasy.
Catastrophic climate change is inevitable and there is nothing we can do about it. Far too late for the minor tweaks that are being proposed to really have any significant effect.
It all comes back to the fact that human intelligence is a characteristic that will ultimately be extinguished or blunted via the law of natural selection. Sapiens intelligence evolved to ensure the survival of mankind but in the end it will lead to the self-destruction of much of human civilization. Whether it is from weapons of mass destruction or climate change remains to be seen but it is coming.
The ultimate irony is that human beings continue to believe that somehow we will be able to reason or bargain our way out of the natural disaster that is coming. It's like trying to stop the rotation of the earth or to stop the tides of the ocean. Only a fantasy.
My thinking is this:
1) There are way too many people who truly don't care enough to change their habits. Therefore we are past the point of no return and climate change is coming.
2) People will change WHEN it's so bad that they are actually scared. Governments will finally enact policies to slow down the heating of the earth because the cost of dealing with the consequences are just too high.
3) A lot of people will die and suffer. So will a lot of the wildlife on earth. There will be different dynamics in the spread of diseases / pandemics.
Or like GearHeadDave said... maybe some stupid war will just end it all or decimated most of the population. Putin or Xi jinping will press the button and everyone will need to fend for themselves.
There are just too many people; people need to acknowledge that and stop having so many children.
To keep unsustainable businesses going, such is the stupidity of many nations' governments, that they encourage people from low carbon footprint lifestyles, to move into areas with massively polluting cultures, but with the pretence of needing them to do all the low paid jobs. Many of which, would not be low paid, were it not for bringing in the cheap labour to do them.
We dont make much of a difference in the climate. It will change regardless like it always has. And as long as countries like China or India pollute the air the way they do, nothing we do will help that. Your ev or solar roof does jack squat in the grand scheme of things the same way your recyclables help the earth. BIg fat nothing!
There was never anything we could do. Nothing we do will change the climate in any way and anyone claiming they have a solution is peddling something to enrich themselves. That doesn't mean we do nothing, but we're limited to things like keeping our planet clear of trash and protecting wildlife...you know the stuff.
The earth has been evolving and changing for 4.5 billion years.
And we think we can change it ?
We can adapt to the changes but I don't think we can stop the changes.
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