Earth's Climate
I believe in the science of climate change. We can see the Earth warming, from surface to tropopause and the effects it is causing are damaging. Whole ecosystems and patterns will change and affect life as we know it. But, at once time, I didn’t think it meant the end of life on Earth. We are adaptable and we can thrive in almost any Earth environment. I figured we would persevere and make do with the new conditions. Sure, people would die and storms would destroy our infrastructure more than in the past, but we would carry on…
I’m not so sure anymore. Today we are hearing that there is at least a 2/3 chance that we will hit and surpass +1/5°C of warming in the next five years. We also are not reducing emissions and effects fast enough so it will probably be more than that in 10-20 years. So the effects are going to be quite significant in 20-50 years. We will see extreme heatwaves, arctic air outbreaks, breakdown of ocean currents, likely power failures, heavy flooding events, significant flash floods, and more intense storms. But what gives me concern is not just the weather and effects, but the way our society seems to be dealing with the impending changes.
The rich people will probably be fine. They will build superstructure buildings that can withstand the elements, floods, and temperatures, house backup power and food supplies, and probably their own mini-community. It’s the 98% of regular people that will routinely die due to the inability to stop the coming changes. And how much change can we take before the changes start to affect the long-term viability of humans on Earth? Crop failures and livestock losses will increase which will cause food shortages. Mass migration will be unable to handle population changes, and work shortages will occur. Ecosystem breakdown will cause the food cycle to become irreparably damaged.
I hate to be so pessimistic, but we are moving too slow. Politicians see this as a future problem, but it’s going to be significant for future generations because we did not act now. Where will be we be in a couple of hundred years? Does society collapse? Do we go mostly extinct as a functioning civilization? How far can this progress and we still survive?