this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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With the month long heat wave.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Friendly reminder that it’s not about denial anymore. It’s about how urgent is the existential threat of tipping points and how radical and fast should we act.

One side says, let’s stay reasonable, let’s not hurt the economy, don’t panic because of the these crazy Greta maniacs. Source: We managed a lot of crisis in the past, sometimes it’s not that hot, lobby money.

The other side says we have to hit the breaks immediately or a lot of people are going to die. Source: Science.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What are you basing the existential threat claim on? I don't think I've heard a credible scientist ever claim it's going to end our specie. The yearly excess deaths estimates I've heard vary from few hundred thousand to couple million a year in 2050 - 2100.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While your numbers, if factual (no source posted), are statistically correct (in that it won't make our species go extinct), you have to remember a simple fact: those numbers represent individual human lives. Family, friends, neighbors, your pizza guy, etc. Pretty brutal to be so flippant about.

Also, this doesn't take into account the potential for cascading environmental system failures that could be caused by such warming. These unknowns could greatly change the equation.

I realize you are mainly arguing the point in response to "existential threats" being bandied about, but it's a weird stance to take here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It's a real issue and actions needs to be taken to prevent the worst case scenario but I find it not useful when people extraggerate the dangers of it. It makes people suspicious about what other things we're being misled about.

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the solid source! I do understand the need for keeping the discussion real, but the article clearly states,

...concluded that to avert catastrophic health impacts and prevent millions of climate change-related deaths...

Sounds pretty existential to me, at a scale we have never experienced.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure. I'm in no way against fighting the climate change and under no illusion that it's not going to affect the lives of billions of people and will lead to probably tens of millions of unecessary deaths. It's a true crisis.

I just personally get irritated when people talk about it as if an asteroid is heading towards earth and is going to wipe out us all. It's unproductive and causes extreme anxiety to many (especially young) people who don't know better and it's also free ammunition for climate change deniers to point out how "the libs lie about this too" etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

That anxiety bit is too true, it has me fairly despondent when I think about it too long. It's fair assertion you make, for sure.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

People are already dying because of the heat or starving because of droughts and water scarcity. Based on the IPCC report it will become even worse, especially of we don’t manage to avoid the tipping points of the climate crisis in the next few years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

(Sorry, English is not my first language)

If I understand you correctly you criticize my usage of the word existential, bc it implies that the climate catastrophe will kill all humans? If yes, then I have to correct myself. While this could be a possible outcome, it’s not based on actual research.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nah, existential is spot on

Relating to existence

Seems all too apropos in this context.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There are definitely worse scenarios. The worst I know states that most parts of the world will be uninhabitable by humans and estimate that there will be 1-1.5 billion survivors by the end of the century. So, end of our species? No, just too damn close for comfort.

Some more context: I couldn't find the report unfortunately and I don't know wether it's a majority opinion in science. The scenario talks about a temperature increase of 7°C and of course it's a worst-case scenario. However, it's definitely a possible scenario.

Edit: found this, definitely a credible scientist.