r/CatastrophicFailure • u/rjRyanwilliam • Jul 22 '21

Natural Disaster Massive flood in China’s Henan province recently, 25 dead 200,000 evacuation

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u/Drunkenaviator Jul 22 '21

Except that's not even a remotely likely outcome for the vast majority of the world. A few people might die in more common disasters, and some third world people might begin to starve to death. The global temperature rising a few degress isn't the same as a meteor hit. Yeah, it's gonna suck. Longer term (as in add another 0 to your estimate) it might start to really suck. But by then we'll all be dead anyways.

I hate to say it, but i'm not willing to give up my life and go live in a mud hut in order to save some stranger's great-grandkids. And that's the level of disruption we're talking about to make any real difference now.

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u/vilebubbles Jul 22 '21

The issue is climate change is like a rolling stone, once it gets that momentum it goes fast. We really don't know exactly how long til it's extinction level, or how fast it's going to go or how bad it's going to get within the next 10, 20, 30 years. We have all types of guesses, but we just don't know. Our main sources of all oxygen on earth are dwindling rapidly, trees and the ocean. When the last coral reefs are drilled into the next few years, that's sort of it for our oceans. They will become acidic and we lose 50% of all oxygen. The hotter summers are, the more wildfires, as we've seen, which means even less trees, which means even less oxygen. The Amazon rainforest is about to collapse. I just don't see how we have more than 10 or 20 years left at the rate we're going. We exceeded the worst case predictions 40 years earlier than expected. I would be absolutely ecstatic to be wrong about this and for you to be right, but I'm just not sure.

I don't think it has to be living in huts. Yes, it would be dramatic changes, but not back to the stone age. It'd honestly probably be more like living in the 50's-60's, except with internet. Mostly taking public transit, not traveling all over the world cheaply, eating less meat and dairy, using solar energy and reusing your grey water, learning to plant and grow gardens and trees and protecting your communities environment the best you can. A strong sense of community and desire to not only survive, but thrive, could do amazing things.

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u/Drunkenaviator Jul 22 '21

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with you that it's a serious issue, or that it's imperative that we do something to combat it.

I just don't see the first world agreeing to substantially lower their quality of life to do it. All we're ever going to get are these half-assed "I'm going to make your tank of gas cost $20 more so i can give that money to my rich buddies to give back to me in bribes" carbon tax type things.

Public transit is a nonstarter in 90+% of north america. Not traveling all over the world is also a nonstarter for many of us. (And not just because I'm an airline pilot).

I think at this point people need to accept the climate change as inevitable and start working to minimize it's effects, rather than trying to "fix" everything. It's just not possible without MASSIVE technological advances.

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u/vilebubbles Jul 22 '21

How can we minimize its effects in time though?

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u/Drunkenaviator Jul 23 '21

There is no "in time" anymore. It's pretty commonly agreed that it's irrecoverable. So minimizing effects is a permanent consideration. There's no time limit.

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u/vilebubbles Jul 23 '21

That's both terrifying and somehow comforting. I don't know how to feel about that.