this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
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[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I mean, we aren't totally screwed. Just climate will get worse and worse until we stop burning fossil fuels. It will eventually stabilize at whatever amount of carbon we end up at when we stop. It's just, how bad will it get in the meantime.

Won't stop us from mass migration, and deaths on an order of magnitude that makes covid look like a blip, and also mass extinction of a large majority of the species on earth. But, we can pull through (I think, maybe)...

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Earth isn’t screwed. Humanity is.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I mean, the species on the planet, and the climate kind of is, so yeah, it kind of is. What's your definition of screwed that says the planet itself will be just fine?

[–] SkyNTP@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The carbon sequestered in the earth in the form of coal, oil and gas hasn't always been in the earth. After all, hydro carbons are in fact hundreds of millions of years of dead trees buried under mud sequestering atmospheric CO2. Which implies there was a time with all that CO2 in the air yet still trees to capture it. By releasing it all, we reset the biosphere's clock to about a time when earth supported a different kind of life (one without us in it), but life nonetheless.

Frankly, the comparisons to Mars and Venus seem a bit overblown.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world -1 points 2 years ago

Maybe, maybe not. We're dealing with extremes that are accelerated here that have never been seen before in earths history, except when the dinosaurs went extinct, and I think 4 other very sudden climate changing events. But this one being human driven is unique, bcz all other events were naturally occurring (except the meteor impact of course). Species don't have time to adapt to sudden changes in climate like this. We are very likely killing all life on earth right now, and it's possible it will never recover.

[–] chitak166@lemmy.world -4 points 2 years ago

Life will adapt and rebuild.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Is it supposed to be comforting knowing that a mostly lifeless husk of a planet will exist after we kill off basically every known species? There's such a thing as too much optimism you know. It's OK to let the unnecessary death of everything you've ever seen be the point of the conversation.

[–] deranger@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I disagree with your prognosis. The earth has been hit by massive meteors, or huge volcanoes erupted - plenty of species survived. Your ancestors, in fact. There’s radiotrophic fungus growing in the Chernobyl reactor. The earth will be fine, as will many of the lower species.

We’re fucked if we don’t change our ways, though.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Again, "the Earth will be fine" is not a comforting statement when it is immediately followed by "but anyone and everything you know will die". I don't know why someone always insists on making that distinction. It's not meaningful to anyone reading it.

[–] Balex@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

It's not meant to be comforting, it's supposed to be tongue in cheek.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The idea that humanity could kill everything on earth forever is laughable. Sure, we can fuck up the earth, but a million years from now it will be full of life. A million years is nothing for a planet.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You're still not getting the point. In what way is that a comforting thought to you? In more simple terms, why does it make a damn bit of difference to you what happens in a million years?

In this potential future you, your family, all your friends, and everyone you've ever met are dead for no better reason than unchecked human greed and when confronting that possibility all you want to talk about is hypothetical flora and fauna. You're disassociating from the actual problem to the point that I don't think you're truly processing what it means for you.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I believe humanity is a disease on this planet. We have never done anything good for it. Our existence will be a minor blip in its history and completely unnoticed in the universe.

[–] krashmo@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ok, well maybe you should lead with that next time so people will know you're coming at it from a wildly different angle than most.

[–] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

I wouldn’t say most. I think most people understand humanity, like all life, is a temporary species. I’m not really sure what issue you have with that fact.

Humanity is bad. Maybe not you specifically. Not me. But as a species, a group, we have been destroying the only home we will ever have since we picked up tools ~50,000 years ago. Think of all the extinct species that are our fault.

This point you think I’m trying to get at is simple, you think earth will be some kind of lifeless husk. And that’s not remotely possible. New life will emerge that can adapt to the damage we have done and thrive while we slowly fade away. This won’t be in our lifetime, but… a few hundred? A thousand? Totally extinct.

So yes, that’s comforting. All our hate, our greed, our destruction… gone. And the planet returns to normal after having a virus (humanity) for approximately 0.00125% of the ~4 billion years since it had life.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You assume it will get better when we stop burning fuel but many things dont just get better when you stop doing what is bad. A lot of things have a point of no return, where you can't just undo all the damage that has been done

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I'm not assuming, that assumption is rooted in science. I'm also not saying things will get better. What I am saying is that the climate will stabilize at whatever new normal there is with the amount of carbon in the carbon life cycle, that means whatever extremes exist at that point, will continue to exist.

[–] TheBananaKing@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

mmmnope. Heard of the clathrate bomb?

There is a fuckton of methane locked in permafrost soils.

Once they start to melt, you get a chain reaction.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Methane is very potent, and will cause issues for sure. You're absolutely right about that. But it also has a much shorter half life than carbon does, so it doesn't have the same kind of long term effects as carbon does.

[–] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Does science say when things will stabilise after we stop using coal and oil? I bet it's not immediate. I bet it will take a lot longer than many think if not hundreds of years just to stabilise into something that maybe isn't even liveable.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Yes, something like a hundred years or so before it stabilizes. I forget what the models are saying, bcz I don't do climate science, my fiance does, so I usually ask her these queations.