Climate change: just how f***ed are we?

[obsessedwithsleep]

Obviously it's on my mind at the moment and it seems that nothing of any significance is being done. Like we're just watching those juggernaut come down the road and not even trying to the move the car.

Anyway, as the title says: how awful will the future be? What is the most likely degree rise by 2100? What does this actually mean in reality?

Would love to hear people's thoughts and wisdom.

Well most peoples reaction to this 'heatwave'.....is that we should have air con everywhere....all schools,shops, every workplace, public transport and in our homes

Which exacerbates the global issue further.....

Everyone is all for repairing our planet until they are inconvenienced it seems...

To answer your thread title - extremely fucked.

My DH is a climate change scientist. It's a pretty dire situation in his opinion. He thinks the best we can do now is learn how to adapt to it.

It's a little heat wave, they happen.

were past the point of stopping it. I think all we can do now is limit it- however I’ve no faith we’ll even do that. I worry for my children

Beyond awful. Extinction level unless we start serious mitigation now, today. But we won't because money, profit, greed...

And stupidity of course, as Agrudge's post adequately demonstrates.

I feel utterly hopeless for the future. Nothing seems to be changing, we have idiot Tory candidates how don’t even want to commit to net zero. I think it is a serious failure of national governments

The best way to deal with it is with a level of acceptance. Then you stop catastrophising.

Yeh that really scares me about them backing out of net zero.

Really quite fucked, I think.

What is needed is large scale change at corporation/government level. And yes, it would inconvenience people and reduce profits, but that obviously isn't palatable.

Governments are too short termist. They only really give a shit about the next 5 years, and they know that they will be booted out if they bring in laws which drive prices up, force corporate action, or inconvenience people in order to address climate change.

I don't think we're advanced enough as a species, to be able to deal with it. People can't give stuff up. I think many people will die and a declining population is what will make a difference, with a smaller group inhabiting a smaller amount of the planet. Humans are greedy and selfish, and we deserve our fate.

No, they don’t. Not like this, in this country. This is 100% caused by anthropogenic climate change. There’s an article in the guardian today saying that we may need to stop considering the U.K. a cold country ffs.

Warm periods have always been more favourable for agriculture and civilisation than cold,ones. We just need to persuade people not to have more than the replacement number of children, and we would all be okay.

I'm not normally someone who catastrophises, or worries. But all the models are genuinely pointing to catastrophe right now. And in many areas of the globe the catastrophe has already started.

In northern Europe we will be sheltered to some extent for a while, but ultimately everyone is going to feel the impact

The lack of snow and rainfall over many years is a more harmful trend. I believe.

I do wonder a bit if we’re just totally and utterly fucked which the powers that be know full well, and that’s why so little is being done? Because there is no point?

Very, especially when we start consuming even more in response to rising temps (aircon, pools, refrigeration, …).
Having said that there is a difference between climate and the weather.

Agrudge

It's a little heat wave, they happen

Can I ask you, do you honestly believe that or are you in total denial? This chart is just Australia, the charts are the same globally. Please answer because I so want to know.

Personally I think we're completed f I've thought about it for the last 45 years and it feels like it's all really happening now. There's nothing more I'd prefer to be wrong about.

Didn't the planets health slightly improve during lockdowns?

Less vehicles etc? Or did I imagine that?

Just as none of us know if we’d be actually told if an asteroid was going to wipe us all out tomorrow (although I suppose these days there are probably enough people tracking such things that it would get leaked) .. maybe it’s also just easier not to tell us all how completely crap our lives are going to be in 20 years time?

And where will all the millions and billions of people that will be displaced by climate change even go? Is that why migration is such a hot topic in so many Western countries, because they know this is a nothing compared to what is coming our way? Surely we aren’t expecting temperatures and sea levels to just rise and rise, wiping out cities and countries and for the local populations to just quietly disappear?

I'll be dead by 2100. Someone else's problem.

That chart is scary

They had no warm weather in 1860's?

This is frightening because it's plausible.

One or two years against decades of very high (and rising) emissions is a drop in the ocean. It's not going to have much of a long term impact.