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.

  • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    20 hours ago

    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 :

    • intensifying weather events like floods, storms, cyclones / hurricanes, to a point where insurance becomes a real unavoidable problem, putting trillions of dollars of real estate at risk.
    • intensifying weather events like droughts where some traditionally viable agricultural areas no longer are, maybe a 10% reduction of arable land in any given region.
    • localised famine events generating a few hundred thousand climate change refugees per year.
    • increasing commercial interest in arable land in regions less likely to be impacted, farm values doubling in some areas
    • increasing political interest in arable land in these same regions, with escalating political tension

    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.