Edit: We survived an ice age and we’re very highly adaptable. Plus, we will hold on to some percentage of technical knowledge that will help us adapt faster.
Edit: We survived an ice age and we’re very highly adaptable. Plus, we will hold on to some percentage of technical knowledge that will help us adapt faster.
I’m not sure exactly what you mean regarding health and lifespan, but I think looking forward from 2025, things are quickly going to go off the rails. We’ve already been seeing severe problems resulting from climate change for years now, and I think that it’s going to rapidly get worse within the next 5-10 years. I’m not talking about sea level rise (except in very vulnerable places that are already partially underwater, like Florida), but about intensifying weather disasters, droughts, and shocks to the global food supply. As a result of this, I think we will see more and more unrest as well as authoritarianism used to deal with that unrest. How quickly all this is going to decimate the population is anyone’s guess.
I’m so glad I don’t have any kids. That failure was a blessing in disguise
To borrow a phrase from my profession, my not having children isn’t a bug, it’s a feature!
‘Tis my profession as well. My life is all testing on Prod.
Going to? Going to? Have you not… /gestures vaguely
I hear you. I meant that more as in even more off the rails, like completely ejected off the rails.
I disagree.
I dont think its particularly likely there will be famines in the next 5 years or so on a scale that can’t be countered by aid.
Sure, economies might start to feel some very serious consequences, shit might start to get very real, I just dont think we’re quite at the point where people start dying.
I have mixed feelings about it. I think it’s perhaps 50/50 on whether things really go crazy within 5-10 years. It’s definitely more than 0% chance, especially considering that people have already been dying due to climate change for quite a while now (extreme weather events, drought, and related conflicts).
I guess it’s subjective.
Sure, climate change is starting to have an impact and more people might die due to malnutrition which is related.
My predictions within 5 years are something like :
I think societal collapse is still a decade away at least. However, the poor and impoverished are certainly going to start to feel the burn.
On the one hand I have a left leaning progressive mind set and have with young children - I’m heavily motivated to try to change our trajectory. On the other hand I’m 43 years old and I don’t remember a period where people weren’t predicting societal collapse in 5 years.
Climate change is bad. Mass extinctions, severe weather events, and famine, are all a certainty in the coming years. However, this needs to be balanced by technological advancements that are going to mitigate the effects. Just as an example, we can produce more food from less land than ever in history.
I pretty much agree with most of your assessment. Thank you for mentioning insurance and real estate, as that will particularly impact countries like the US, where the two have been in a feedback loop, greatly inflating home prices.
I just worry that any technological advances will only be used to either directly help people at the top or to make them richer in the process of helping those below. That has been increasingly the trend over the decades.
Yeah, you’re right in that wealthy people are heavily motivated to capture the value provided by new technologies.
However, I don’t think that’s always the case.
Roof top solar is one example. Really high rates of adoption here in Australia. The cost of the equipment has reduced dramatically and it’s a bit silly not to install at this point. It’s good for the planet and it reduces costs for individuals and families of all kinds.
Food production is another one. Yes a lot of farms are owned by large corporations, but a lot of farms are also family operations. If they make more food they make more money and secondary industries can charge farmers more money. In my area this agricultural production is the primary industry and although there might be $100k people in my city almost all employment is in supporting industries, whether that’s maintaining equipment, transporting goods, financial services, et cetera. While there’s always some concentration of wealth it doesn’t seam particularly problematic for the moment.
I don’t really know anything about this but it’s possible that in the future you’ll be able to make synthetic meats at home in a bioreactor.
I guess I’m just saying that while I agree the implications of climate change are bleak, emerging technologies might mitigate the impact on human-kind to some extent.
I get what you mean. You seem to have an optimistic view that technology will help us out of this mess eventually (or at least soften its impact). I guess in some ways I’m a pessimist, but I can respect your view and accept that your scenario is also a possible outcome. I happen to think it’s less likely than what the outcome I imagine, but it is possible. My uncle has always had a similar view as yours.