Looking at global response to covid, climate change will be our doom?

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
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In case its necessary, the long version of what I'm asking in the threat title: Judging by the general global response to covid, ie. enough people evidently not taking sufficient responsibility (personal responsibility, and collective responsibility from those who should be leading: companies, countries, whatever), I fairly firmly believe that humanity will get proper-fucked by climate change.

Admittedly the two crises are very different, but both require a global response that's fairly consistent. AFAIK climate change could be countered mostly with morally-minded leadership (including political bipartisanship) to persue tough commitments to ensure that for example manufacturing processes are optimised for environmental concerns at the expense of short-term capitalism. Whereas the global covid response requires a commitment from pretty much everyone on the planet and powerful messaging to convince various degrees of covidiots to do their part (which isn't insignificant).

However, factoring our political reality into account, the two crises are more similar: Conservatives (the GOP and the UK conservative party at the very least) would rather downplay the problems and/or pretend they don't exist, and think that capitalism is a greater concern than public health (even though the former depends on the latter). The GOP are still in denial about covid and climate change, and the UK conservatives are treating covid like a PR threat and acting like fracking is a good long-term solution. When the political powers are not singing from the same hymn sheet in response to a global issue, then neither is the populace. When enough of the populace is not taking the crisis sufficiently seriously, then the political powers are happy to concern themselves with other issues like trying to make the capitalism spice flow in the short term.

We've got enough people claiming that covid doesn't even exist (or isn't a serious issue) when the death toll has reached the millions and hospitals have filled to the point that critically ill people cannot be cared for to normal standards; the issue is right in front of them and still they act like this. What chance does humanity have against countering climate change when the symptoms are a lot more easily deniable (attributable to other causes)? We've got lunatics who are happy to say people who died of covid actually died from something else though it was a direct result of a covid infection. My parents (conservatives of course) honestly believed that when the local council asks us to separate waste for recycling that they all throw it into the landfill anyway.

Even though I've written a whole load of very fatalistic viewpoints about covid and climate change, I'm not going to let my guard down for a second and think that any personal effort is pointless anyway because it might still help in some small way, but I do think the writing is on the wall for humanity. I'd be surprised if either crisis resulted in the complete end of humanity, but IMO the outcome of either will not be to the betterment of humanity, ie. we confronted a problem and pulled together heroically to achieve the best possible solution as quickly as we could and we've learnt something in the process. We may pull through but not without great loss and without having achieved something that stands us in better stead for the next crisis.

I'm personally at a point where yesterday I was considering the likely scenario that the region I live in will enter lockdown again that instead of doing nothing I might volunteer at a local hospital in a lower-risk capacity (whatever donkey work needs doing). It's crazy that I live in a developed country that will likely need that kind of help because its populace has enough uncivilised people in it, but that is the sad reality we are living in.

Thoughts?
 

eelw

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 1999
8,937
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Mother nature will purge humanity and reverse damage done over the last 2 centuries and restore earth for the next dominate species.
 
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Stokely

Golden Member
Jun 5, 2017
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Not just inaction--denial and opposition to even the research.
If we have responded so poorly to something as short-term and relatively simple as a pandemic, we have no chance at taking the long view and putting policies into place to deal with climate change. The only thing I'm optimistic about is the fact that alternative energy is rapidly become more profitable...probably not enough to head off catastrophe but maybe it won't be quite as bad as otherwise.
 

nOOky

Platinum Member
Aug 17, 2004
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Mother nature will purge humanity and reverse damage done over the last 2 centuries and restore earth for the next dominate species.

The bees, probably.

If you read any sci-fi it's always about the people, not the technology. About how Earth has become over-saturated with resource consuming hoards of people that do nothing but exist, and we end up killing the planet and have to find a new place to do the same thing to.
 

dank69

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
35,204
28,223
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Climate change isn't going to doom humanity. Humanity's biggest asset is our ability to adapt and overcome. The world will be a lot different though, and a lot of coastal property will be wiped out I think. Animal life will be very different, too. Probably going to continue to lose a lot of species.
 
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Xcobra

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2004
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I was never a fan of my pessimism but we, as a race, have zero vision towards the future. All we care about is the short term and how to get ahead no matter what. So zero chance of any collectivism for anything. I hope I am dead before the forces of nature decides we need an exorcism lol
 
Nov 17, 2019
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Mom will prevail over our evil.

life-after-people-texas-building.jpg
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All Hail Mom!
 

cytg111

Lifer
Mar 17, 2008
23,049
12,719
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I was never a fan of my pessimism but we, as a race, have zero vision towards the future. All we care about is the short term and how to get ahead no matter what. So zero chance of any collectivism for anything. I hope I am dead before the forces of nature decides we need an exorcism lol

Our brains were fully developed 50.000 years ago, so we are not really primed to navigate conditions much different from back then, aka late stone age.
If we want to change our genome beyond that we have to code it ourselves.