• ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    The PETM wasn’t so bad, and neither was the Cretaceous hothouse Earth. Paleontology gives me the perspective needed to know that we’re not all going to die even in the worst-case scenario.

    • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      We may revert back to monke though.

      Jokes aside, no way do I want to live through a “worst case scenario” or anything even close to it.

    • Daxtron2@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Yeah I’m sure the rich and powerful will be a-ok in their bunkers while the rest of us burn, drown, and fight over the last remaining resources.

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Bunkers? Burn? The air will still be breathable and the temperature will still be within the livable range. Global warming is a big problem, but it isn’t going to turn the planet into an uninhabitable wasteland, just as it didn’t during the multiple times in the past when it happened naturally.

        • Knusper@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          We’re already seeing an increase in natural disasters, with various areas experiencing floods, draughts or wildfires that didn’t use to have them.
          This alone leads to political conflicts in those areas, but also leads to mass emigrations, ultimately causing the political egoists right in unaffected areas being strengthened, which could at its worst lead to another Nazi uprising, world war etc…

          I do also think that humanity as a whole will survive (that is, if we don’t obliterate the ecosystems sustaining our lives, like e.g. pollinators). But our current life style of 8 billion people across all areas of Earth may not be sustainable anymore, which does mean the more privileged will be fine, others not.

    • IAmHisBiggestSpoon
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      8 months ago

      Just the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us, who happens to be contributing the least to the cause.

  • Knusper@feddit.de
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    8 months ago

    We are currently in the 6th mass extinction event in the history of the planet Earth. 🙂

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Yeah, and it will stabilize to a climate that isn’t very habitable for anything that currently lives here, maybe nothing will be here but simple called organisms, we really don’t know how bad it will be.

        • Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Sorry to be an ass but the stupid “the Earth will be fine” nonsense needs to end. Nobody thinks we’re going to “kill” all the rocks, and earth’s core, and the mantle and mountains lol. We’re talking about our fucking habitat and ecosystem we need to survive.

          We and many/most other species cannot survive/adapt fast enough to a fast and catastrophic change to our habitat, which we absolutely objectively are causing. Just because we could possibly survive this because of our ingenuity and intelligence is completely irrelevant. I don’t want our greatest challenge as a species to be figuring out how to survive a dystopian apocalyptic scenario because of extreme greed and selfishness. I’d prefer our species challenges to be things like star trek warp drives and replicators and holodecks and other cool stuff instead, but no we gotta keep making sure billionaires make even more money.

          • Obinice@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            We’re talking about our fucking habitat and ecosystem we need to survive.

            Are we though? I see so much “The earth is gonna die!” and “Life is doomed!” everywhere, but as this guy correctly points out, the planet will be fine.

            In fact, humans will endure too. It’s just our current civilisation that’s in danger, that’s all.

            But people do like to hyperbolise all over the place haha, and people start to believe it. It’s important to make the distinction.

    • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 months ago

      Is it actually self-stabilizing though? Or I guess it depends what you mean by that. AFAIK the earth has been in many different stages lasting for long times, changing from one to the other due to various factors. But it’s unlikely earth will return to a pre-industrial state, even after millions of years, especially if we keep emitting CO2, I believe.

      But if you just mean that a new plateau will be reached eventually, then sure, a mass extinction will still happen though.

      • lol3droflxp@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        CO2 usually stabilises within tens of millions of years and would probably go back to a pre industrial level.

        • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          If the earth enters a state where most of the water is locked up in glaciers (‘snowball earth’), then it is unlikely that it will be able to exit it. Similarly, if it becomes too hot, it is again unlikely that it will return to what it is now. The earth can handle small disturbances in CO2 / temp, but a sufficiently large swing can lock us into one of the extreme situations.

          • lol3droflxp@kbin.social
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            8 months ago

            True, however there were extinctions caused by far larger increases in CO2 than we have today and it didn’t happen. So at this moment it does not seem likely that we will achieve it this time.