Do you believe Humanity will be able to solve the Global Warming Crises in time? - General

I'm not asking if you think we physically can solve global warming. I think it is obviously possible, but my question is more about whether or not humanity actually will. For many times in history, mankind has sat and watched its demise unfold. I feel as though that same situation is playing out right now in our lifetimes. Don't get me wrong, I don't think global warming will cause any serious risk to extinction. What I do believe is we will see a major shift in our climate, resulting in large instability if not outright collapse in most of the world. While humanity will continue on, it will be a much darker world than we see today. I DO believe it is at this point in time we will see emergence of greener technologies and a significant shift away from carbon based fuels, but I don't think they will come in time to prevent a collapse, only to prevent a shitty situation from getting even shittier. To be honest, the whole situation is what has turned me into pretty much a nihilist. (That, and politics... *shudders*) That's my two cents. Does anyone have a brighter or an even darker prediction of our future? Or do you think things will mostly be the same, with just a slight shift in weather patterns and temperatures?

I have no doubt we'll survive, but I think the world will get more inhospitable and extreme as time goes on. We have the technology to survive long winters and hot summers. Most likely, as weather patterns shift and the earth heats up, people will start to realize the importance of making green changes. There's no way to reverse the effects we've already caused, but we can slow it and give ourselves time to develop technologies to make a more harsh environment more survivable. Think of how the world would change if the gulf stream collapsed - Britain would have incredibly long, cold winters, and Europe would become far colder than normal. What if the polar vortex remained a near-permanent fixture over the US? For years, cities in the south would struggle to adapt, but we would absolutely adapt. Humans are stupidly adaptable creatures when it comes to the environments we can survive. If people can survive winter in Greenland or Anchorage, people further south can adapt as well. Rising sea levels can be held back with clever engineering, just look at the Netherlands. Really, at the rate shit is changing, humans will have plenty of time to adapt. The real issue will be how we're able to cope with weather patterns that we've never seen before. If El Nino goes haywire, we won't know what to expect in time to prepare areas at risk. Snowstorms in Arizona, record heat in typically colder climates, all of that will absolutely kill under-prepared people. It's scary.

I think worst case scenario, the ice caps melt and the oceans rise, most cities will slowly be rebuilt a few miles inland as coast crawls toward them, some minorly effected cities may opt to build dirt walls around themselves instead. In other areas, mass swaths of land will be abandoned completely as they become submerged, all of Florida will be taken by the sea. Mass extinctions cause the ecosystem to go wild, causing starvation and death of human and animal alike. Mass amounts of people will live in poverty as a long lasting economic depression grips society as a result of food, water, and energy shortages. Much of society will be unhappy and riots may be frequent, military rule may be enacted in some places. Some parts of the equator will become uninhabitable in summer time, but will likely be used as retreats in winter for wealthy families seeking to avoid the sharp bitter cold that grips the northern regions. We'll survive, but it won't be pretty.

[QUOTE=Mr. Someguy;46452598]I think worst case scenario, the ice caps melt and the oceans rise, most cities will slowly be rebuilt a few miles inland as coast crawls toward them, some minorly effected cities may opt to build dirt walls around themselves instead. In other areas, mass swaths of land will be abandoned completely as they become submerged, all of Florida will be taken by the sea. Mass extinctions cause the ecosystem to go wild, causing starvation and death of human and animal alike. Mass amounts of people will live in poverty as a long lasting economic depression grips society as a result of food, water, and energy shortages. Much of society will be unhappy and riots may be frequent, military rule may be enacted in some places. Some parts of the equator will become uninhabitable in summer time, but will likely be used as retreats in winter for wealthy families seeking to avoid the sharp bitter cold that grips the northern regions. We'll survive, but it won't be pretty.[/QUOTE] This is pretty much exactly how I think it'll go down as well.

I find it a nonissue. I honestly think we'll either move off of Earth entirely or nuke ourselves into oblivion before this comes to a head.

I honestly doubt we'll be able to solve it before it has done even so little as fatally effect a few million people. The primary contributed to global warming give zero fucks about it as they're shady for profit institutions. Pretty pessimistic but I highly doubt we'll even truly see a real push toward fixing the problem unless these corporations see profit losses because of their actions or we get actually competent governments in the world to do something about it.

No. I think we are completely and totally fucked, and that 100 years from now, people will look back at the early 2000s as the peak of human civilization. We're headed for unprecedented unrest, war, famine, and societal instability. There is nothing in human history that compares with the kind of forced migration we're going to face when the coastal cities finally begin to drown. Tens of millions of people in the US alone will become internally displaced, and that's nothing compared to what will happen in the developing world. We blew our chance. We put the profits of a select few ahead of the entire world's well-being. It's not going to be the end of human civilization...but it'll be a long time before it's this good again.

Maybe. It can be expected the burnable fuels become extinguished soon. This could lead to potentially interesting consequences, but since a Malthusian catastrophe will likely occur within 30 years, even though that will only cause a population bottleneck and wont have much effect on advancement. That would cause less carbon dioxide being released. Best case scenario some dude finds some way to use CO2 as fuel. Sea rise is not actually a very bad thing since it's slow and things can be rebuilt, plus side is more ice-free land. If this shit continues at this ludicrous rate shit ain't going to be well. A really severe Malthusian catastrophe would occur, but this one instead would fuck everything up, also mass extinctions.

What global warming? It's fucking freezing outside. Crank up that global warming plox.

[QUOTE=Prolifica;46517792]What global warming? It's fucking freezing outside. Crank up that global warming plox.[/QUOTE] A '14er that is absolutely retarded. Wow, colour me surprised. Oh wait. That's not how climate change works, thanks for your brainwashed input. Like, you honestly have to either be absolutely sheltered or willingly ignorant to not know how this works. Basically it works like this, hot oceans and shit cause more heat to go North. By midwinter, as more and more heat is being transferred to the Arctic, the troposphere and stratosphere can link up, destabilizing the polar vortex, weakening the jet stream, and sending waves of cold air southward. This is why I lived in the fifth coldest place on the planet for literally all of last week.

You need to change the minds of the Republicans and Big Business Energy, and thats pretty damn hard as it is.

[QUOTE=draugur;46517826]A '14er that is absolutely retarded. Wow, colour me surprised. Oh wait. That's not how climate change works, thanks for your brainwashed input. Like, you honestly have to either be absolutely sheltered or willingly ignorant to not know how this works. Basically it works like this, hot oceans and shit cause more heat to go North. By midwinter, as more and more heat is being transferred to the Arctic, the troposphere and stratosphere can link up, destabilizing the polar vortex, weakening the jet stream, and sending waves of cold air southward. This is why I lived in the fifth coldest place on the planet for literally all of last week.[/QUOTE] retarded? RETARDD???? FUCK U FUCKING ABLEIST ASSHOLE STOP USING THAT FUCKING OFFENSIVE WORD

[QUOTE=Used Car Salesman;46501330]No. I think we are completely and totally fucked, and that 100 years from now, people will look back at the early 2000s as the peak of human civilization. We're headed for unprecedented unrest, war, famine, and societal instability. There is nothing in human history that compares with the kind of forced migration we're going to face when the coastal cities finally begin to drown. Tens of millions of people in the US alone will become internally displaced, and that's nothing compared to what will happen in the developing world. We blew our chance. We put the profits of a select few ahead of the entire world's well-being. It's not going to be the end of human civilization...but it'll be a long time before it's this good again.[/QUOTE] agreedo

[QUOTE=PYROxSYCO;46545960]You need to change the minds of the Republicans and Big Business Energy, and thats pretty damn hard as it is.[/QUOTE] No, we just need to make them less powerful, or have a change of seats in those groups Really, climate change is already happening and it has already destroyed Darfur and ruined agriculture in various areas of the world. We're working on a meter, rather than a fixed "yes" or "no." It also depends on what you mean by "on time;" for many, it can be considered to already too late. The real question should be how well do you think society will adapt to Climate Change as it happens and how much you think society will slow it down.

No. This world is a bussiness and there aient no time for saving it.

I have to agree with TestECull. Humans have many more threatening and imminent issues than global warming, that are coming at quicker speeds.

What do you mean by 'in-time'? Global warming isnt some slowly filling bar that, upon completion, annihilates humanity wholesale or splits the planet in half. Its going to be a gradual shift in climate in a way that would probably be expensive and unpleasant for humans (flooding, places without infrastructure to handle specific weather getting said weather) , but its certainly not going to do anything extremely drastic for a VERY long time.

I think whatever happens the effect will be so gradual and minimal that it won't have much of an impact.

[QUOTE=ntzu;46598553]What do you mean by 'in-time'? Global warming isnt some slowly filling bar that, upon completion, annihilates humanity wholesale or splits the planet in half. Its going to be a gradual shift in climate in a way that would probably be expensive and unpleasant for humans (flooding, places without infrastructure to handle specific weather getting said weather) , but its certainly not going to do anything extremely drastic for a VERY long time.[/QUOTE] I agree. Humans are like cockroaches. So long as there is two of them alive they will find a way to survive. Put them through any sort of fire and some will come out.

Probably in the worst case scenario, our best idea is probably the colonization of a different planet or so, then we can avoid a global warming scenario that would kill us off. But our only suggestions is Mars, The Jupiter moons, or Venus, which is completely inhospitable, except if we development terraforming techniques and get rid of Venus' hot atmosphere. I remember reading an article a while ago, if we get rid of Venus' hot atmosphere, we can make it into a second Earth.

[QUOTE=Deathtrooper2;46639034]Probably in the worst case scenario, our best idea is probably the colonization of a different planet or so, then we can avoid a global warming scenario that would kill us off. But our only suggestions is Mars, The Jupiter moons, or Venus, which is completely inhospitable, except if we development terraforming techniques and get rid of Venus' hot atmosphere. I remember reading an article a while ago, if we get rid of Venus' hot atmosphere, we can make it into a second Earth.[/QUOTE] If we end up finding ways to settle permanently on other planets we'd be able to live on a completely destroyed Earth as well.

[QUOTE=Mr_Awesome;46597742]I have to agree with TestECull. Humans have many more threatening and imminent issues than global warming, that are coming at quicker speeds.[/QUOTE] Not thinking about the long run is an incredibly naive move. Climate change is a cumulative process, the longer we leave it the worse it becomes, the harder it is to reverse, and the lesser we'll actually see from reversing it. If we start implementing schemes to "fix" it now, it mitigates the increase in change over time for the future, so even if we cannot offset it, we can slow it drastically enough to give us time. But what other "imminent" threats are there? Don't you dare say anything like economics or IS. IS can be dealt with simultaneously and are more a thorn in our side. Economic factors can always be fixed in significantly shorter periods of time compare to climate change. There's nothing stopping us from trying to slow or reverse climate change and address these "threats" at the same time.

"Environmental engineering is the integration of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment, to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to clean up pollution sites." i think we'll be okay

We will survive, but how the eco-system will handle it is more questionable...

[QUOTE=Torjuz;46655238]We will survive, but how the eco-system will handle it is more questionable...[/QUOTE] It will handle it. It's gone through much worse before.

[QUOTE=_Axel;46655253]It will handle it. It's gone through much worse before.[/QUOTE] that being said the ecosystem will lose a large amount of the species endangered.

[QUOTE=TheKingofBees;46661461]that being said the ecosystem will lose a large amount of the species endangered.[/QUOTE] Yes, and others will take their place afterwards. We only have to look after ourselves. We're not Earth's good Samaritans, we can't make sure our ecosystem remains frozen in time forever. However, brutal changes in the ecosystem can affect us, which is why we should be careful about the impact we have on it.

[QUOTE=_Axel;46661529]Yes, and others will take their place afterwards. We only have to look after ourselves. We're not Earth's good Samaritans, we can't make sure our ecosystem remains frozen in time forever. However, brutal changes in the ecosystem can affect us, which is why we should be careful about the impact we have on it.[/QUOTE] Shouldn't we? After all, this is our fault.

[QUOTE=Kirad;46661630]Shouldn't we? After all, this is our fault.[/QUOTE] But who are we accountable to besides ourselves? Should we look after every species on Earth, even after they have become unfit for survival and don't benefit us in any way?

[QUOTE=_Axel;46661682]But who are we accountable to besides ourselves? Should we look after every species on Earth, even after they have become unfit for survival and don't benefit us in any way?[/QUOTE] Yes. Every extinction is a tragedy.