2d ago

Trump Order Shifts the Financial Burden of Climate Change Onto Individuals.

www.propublica.org Trump Order Shifts the Financial Burden of Climate Change Onto Individuals

The change would effectively transfer financial responsibility from oil drillers, auto manufacturers and others and leave Americans to face greater direct costs as warming continues.

The change would effectively transfer financial responsibility from oil drillers, auto manufacturers and others and leave Americans to face greater direct costs as warming continues.

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Socialized losses, privatized profits, as it always has been
- Except this time it will kill us all
  
  Nope. That's a common misconception about climate change. Humankind will not die out anytime soon. But a lot of places on this world will become inhospitable and the people that are currently living there will migrate.
  Guess where they'll want to migrate to when they have to?
  
  Can you back up your ‘common misconception’ statement? I must be commonly misconceived, because I thought when we reach +3, it cascades into +5 because of methane sinks below permafrost at which point the ocean acidifies and heats making it inhospitable for phytoplankton and oxygen production falls.
  
  Watch Sabine Hossenfelder's videos about climate models on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4S9sDyooxf4
  +3 °C just means that the average temperature on Earth increased by that on average. There are places where the increase is higher and there are places where the temperature dropped. And then there are other places where the weather will be more violent than it was in the past.
  The melting of permafrost in Russia that keeps methane trapped will probably be a problem in the future but that's still several decades or even a century away. The release of methane will not kill us. But it might kill a lot of species.
  It's not the temperature that's the problem, it's the rate of change. Flora and fauna can't adapt that fast. 10 000 years would be enough time to adapt to +3 °C but it'll happen within only a 150 years time span.
  Humans on the other hand will just install an air con and be done with 'adapting'. Some coastal areas will be flooded and some hot places on Earth will be too hot for humans but everywhere else will stay 'ok'.
  Live on Earth will survive. There were times when temperature and atmosphere conditions were way more extreme and even toxic for humans. But the dinosaurs thrived in that conditions!
  
  This ignores the interdependence of humans with other species including plants. I still find your optimism unfounded. It also fails to address ocean acidification leading to a loss in oxygen production.
  
  I repeat: Live thrived under much harsher conditions in the past. It will not suddenly die out. I find your pessimism unfounded. I'm sure humankind will exist for at least another millennium.
  Ocean acidification will not kill all algae. They existed for much longer than most other forms of live. They survived the +14 °C 300 million years ago, guess how acid the oceans were back then. Also about 300 million years ago oxygen levels in the atmosphere peaked at about 35 % indicating a very strong production by plants. The algae species from back then are still alive today!

10 comments