by Heineken » Sat 25 Jan 2020, 09:19:50
Years and years ago on this website I said that global warming would be a far more important issue in the longer run than peak oil (which at the time appeared to be happening, but wasn't). Since then, what we know about global warming has become relentlessly more dire, and the worst-case scenarios keep getting worse. I do think we have the beginnings of runaway global warming. And I do believe that this is the thing that gets us, our civilization. It is perfectly designed by nature to destroy us. For one thing, even with a clear picture of what's coming, we keep doing the same thing about it that we've done all along---nothing. How could we do much, when our civilization EVOLVED on the grubby back of hydrocarbons? CO2 concentrations continue to rise, exponentially I think. For that matter, it's probably too late to do anything to stop or possibly even slow the juggernaut of warming, as more and more positive-feedback loops get entrained. We've released the tiger and now it's going to eat us, thrash around as we may. And . . . what happens when real panic sets in? When the dim bulb in the mass mind lights up? When the population of, say, Pakistan swarms across its northern borders? We will probably destroy ourselves even faster than unlivable temperatures do. I think that by 2100 the civilization is dead, we are largely barbarians, and the population is reduced to well under 1 billion, possibly to just a few million (esp. if there's nuclear war). "Sad."
"Actually, humans died out long ago."
---Abused, abandoned hunting dog
"Things have entered a stage where the only change that is possible is for things to get worse."
---I & my bro.