> What...are we going to do about this? This seems like it could shape up to be a humanitarian crisis of completely incomparable proportions
There are a lot of empty places on earth. Without looking far, just look at the midwest, Canada, Russia... There's even a whole continent that's currently frozen - Antarctica.
If temperatures rise to the point of say making Antarctica livable, it would just be fair compensation to open it for settlement to every ecological migrant.
> You can't just dump a million people somewhere after collecting them from off the street and hope for the best.
Indeed. But look at the time it takes to create new infrastructure (large building, hospitals...) in China when it's needed right now.
I believe we have the technology to make large metropolis in a matter of a few semesters. Even assuming a total lack of improvements, a few years is all it should take to tackle the emergency even if we are barely prepared and organized.
And if there's only one thing to trust, when push come to shove, humanity always accomplish miracles. Crisis unites: people forget about old feuds to care about each other.
> humanity always accomplish miracles. Crisis unites: people forget about old feuds to care about each other.
I'm not intentionally Malthusian, typically Ricardian. However, I feel there are two things being ignored
1. The pandemic response shows that individual humans don't seem to care much for humanity
2. It's within our capacity to start acting now, rather than waiting for a threshold to be crossed where most, if not all, of humanity dies off due to +6C average temps with wild swings and the wild weather, infrastructure destruction, and more that brings.
> Indeed. But look at the time it takes to create new infrastructure (large building, hospitals...) in China when it's needed right now.
These large projects definitely seems astounding if you think they started the day the first brick was laid. In reality there is a huge supply chain supporting those accomplishments, pre-determined architecture, and more. So, establishing a base on Ceres for mining? We got that in the bag. Coordinating even more than the pandemic would have required to stem the tide of accelerating temperature increases? I admit pessimism.
Your point about having pre-determined plan is very valid - although, given China experience building major infrastructure for the road and belt initiative, I think that'd be easily covered.
I think the core disagreement is on the empathy levels, and the need to act sooner rather than later.
At <1% mortality, I think the pandemic response showed we care quite a lot, enough to do many things, but not to the point of sacrificing everything we need normal just for such little lives to save. If it had been 10% or 30%, I think the conclusion would have been very different.
As for the need to start acting now, things take time! The pandemic got us a wonderful vaccine manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, based on brand new technology that drastically cut the time to production. We're lucky we got such a low mortality disease first!
I don't see why global warming would happen as a +6C overnight. If Antartica melt, change the gulf stream, it'll be bad - but not "most, if not all, of humanity dies off". Maybe 1%. Maybe 5%? In any case, enough to create a big fright and get us to prepare an adequate response for the next time!
There are a lot of empty places on earth. Without looking far, just look at the midwest, Canada, Russia... There's even a whole continent that's currently frozen - Antarctica.
If temperatures rise to the point of say making Antarctica livable, it would just be fair compensation to open it for settlement to every ecological migrant.