Why are people so worried about climate change?
Historically, we have been able to solve all of our problems and come up on top. At some point the incentive for fixing the climate will be so high that it will become a race for corporations to comply. At some point we will advance so quickly with AI that this alone will take care of the climate change problems for us. So, why are people so anxious? Or, are people anxious about it? I feel like people around me are freaking out. I personally think there is a problem but I have no doubts that we will fix it with technology. Nothing is irreversible.
It’s bound to get out of hand very very soon and the oldies who don’t believe in it will not exist
This is unlike any other challenge that we have ever faced. We only have a single home world. We are standing on a proverbial train tracks and seeing a train coming right at us. But instead of just getting off the tracks, we are prying for a miracle (technology) We have the technology! We need good policy to make it happen now. Let's get rid of fossil fuels subsidies, and give them to renewables. At least until the market stabilizes
May be you don't care about the other species and you won't live long enough to understand the gradual effects of climate change.
Everything is not reversible.
Climate models have been for now 10 years now. And they have been consistently wrong in making predictions. They initially predicted global warming, which was changed to climate change. Now the most recent NASA data shows that land temperatures have been pretty stable, while only the ocean temperatures have gone up by 0.8 degrees in 50 years. So, they decided to combine the graphs together into one, instead of separate graphs, as a graph on land temperatures being constant will not fit the narrative.
Because 50% of the population is actively impeding the changes (socially and economically) required to save our sinking cities (we're not talking about Uganda folks. Miami already routinely sinks every year) It's like the 50% of the population opposing farm tractors because it makes them lose their property (ahem, slaves). A lot of people have vested interest in coal, polluting vehicles, polluting factories. These tend to be rich old owners or old factory workers. In trying to save the future, these guys would have to give up their way of life. They don't want to give it up. They want to maximize their wealth and then die off. They don't care what happens to future generations. If you are a young person, you need to understand that entitled boomers are cannibalizing your future.
They will die out and be replaced in a generation and the new generation that comes after will have a different mindset. At some point the corporations that profit from these things will lose more that they earn because of sinking cities. We might face some problems, some cities near the oceans will get flooded and destroyed. But that’s hardly the end of humanity.
Humanity obviously will not end. It's about what we as a society hold dear to us. Do we care more about future and invest multi year resources to the future or do we use the same resources on the past just to get some votes, at the expense of our kids? These problems cannot be solved at the flip of a button. These problems can only be solved by making hard choices.
What if all that happens when you die is you end up getting squeezed out of some screaming woman again a few days later and you just start all over again and you can't remember shit. You want to come back to an almost dead planet?
I don’t believe that I would come back to an almost dead planet. If you told people 100 years ago that we would be able to grow human organs in labs - they would say that it is impossible. Or if you told people about nanotechnology, they would say it’s impossible. Or having a robot on Mars that sends pictures back to Earth. They would say it’s impossible. Today, people are saying that repairing Earth is impossible. Why would it be? Why can’t we create our own ozone layer? Why wouldn’t we be able to repair the current ozone layer? I don’t understand why people have so little faith in technology when it has proven to push through over and over again. What I do understand is that people have little faith in greed and other people - but this has been true since history of humanity. Yet, we still come out on top. No king will reign forever. At some point humanity might die out. But I doubt that will be because of climate change.
Do you treat live site issues the same way? “Meh. We’ve always handled these issues in the past, so I won’t bother to do anything now... Someone else is sure to fix it later.”
What if that “some point the incentive will be high enough” is right now?
It’s not. We are starting to feel some minor problems such as flooding and harsher weather conditions. But the incentive isn’t there yet. There is no rush for our survival and the economical incentives are not there yet. When a city like New York is in serious danger then you will see incentive. If more cities end up like Venice then we will see incentive. When corporations lose more from the destruction than they profit from not complying we will see major incentive.
Corporations lobby the hell out of that. There was a law in Florida that requires wireless carriers to rebuild infrastructure after natural disasters. Verizon lobbied to get rid of the law. There are no paying customer in flooded areas, why should they invest? But wireless communication is critical to the rebuild effort.
Corporations never have long term vision. Corporations are ALWAYS focused on short term profit. It’s up to the government to act on long term interests. Remember the report that Exxon knows about climate change for decades, but never acted on it?
I don’t think you understand. It’s not like one day, we can come together as the human race and “fix earth”. If we continue doing what we are, it will literally be unrepairable.
How do you know that? You wouldn’t even be able to explain what you mean with “literally be unrepairable”. There was a time when we thought cars would be impossible. Flying would be impossible. If you go back 200 years and show the brightest minds a smartphone they wouldn’t even be able to comprehend what it is. We have satellites in space and a damn robot on Mars sending pictures back to earth. We have nanotechnology and we can grow human organs in labs... What is it that’s unrepairable?
It’s not that I don’t understand. I’m just more optimistic than you... Just like the people that believed that humans would be able to fly one day.