Hothouse Earth Is Merely the Beginning of the End

[workinclasszero]

Not the end of the planet, but maybe the end of its human inhabitants
By JEFF GOODELL AUGUST 9, 2018 2:48PM ET

“Our future,” scientist James Lovelock has written, “is like that of the passengers on a small pleasure boat sailing quietly above the Niagara Falls, not knowing that the engines are about to fail.”

On the radio, I listened to reports from around the world: in Athens, Greece, a fire killed 92 people; in Japan, a brutal heat wave claimed 80 lives. This summer, wildfires have been burning in the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Germany. There are even wildfires in the Arctic. High temperature records have been shattered all around the globe, including in Death Valley, California, which set the record for the hottest month ever recorded on the planet, with 21 days over 120 degrees. Our world is aflame.

And in Lovelock’s view, the Earth’s self-regulating system is seriously out of whack, thanks largely to our 150-year fossil fuel binge. “You could quite seriously look at climate change as a response of the system intended to get rid of an irritating species: us humans,” Lovelock told me in 2007 when I visited him at his house in Devon, England, for a profile in Rolling Stone. “Or at least cut them back to size.”

By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe, and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions. “The Chinese have nowhere to go but up into Siberia,” Lovelock says. “How will the Russians feel about that? I fear that war between Russia and China is probably inevitable.” With hardship and mass migrations will come epidemics, which are likely to kill millions. By 2100, Lovelock believes, the Earth’s population will be culled from today’s 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes – Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/hothouse-earth-climate-change-709470/

[saidsimplesimon]

1. fini

If Canada will accept you as an immigrant, I would suggest those who can make the move. imo

[workinclasszero]

3. If you have young children, can afford it and be accepted by the Canadian govt

I'd get a move on now and pick an area up north in Canada, well away from the US border.

[democratisphere]

5. Canada will likely build a border wall soon.

Won't want those pesky Americans destroying their country.

[workinclasszero]

8. Yeah probably

Maybe minefields and machine gun bunkers facing south as well.

[democratisphere]

9. Likely.

[Moostache]

2. The decision makers alive today KNOW they will die before the species...hence the FU to all...

These rat bastards should be arrested now but won't...their collected "treasures" should be forcibly taken back and given away now, but won't...their very lives should be emblazoned with shame and infamy, but won't...

It's time to admit something very difficult to hear...humanity has killed itself already, the only uncertainty is how fast we go out. It never was a question of "if" and always was "when"...we have proven ourselves incapable of the necessary empathy to put the good of the species survival above temporal pleasure and creature comforts or conveniences. Our monkey brains did not evolve fast enough to cope with the mastery of the planet before we could doom ourselves.

Well, we always knew this ride ended with a trip to the see the Great Banana in the end...it will just be served as a baked pie instead.

[workinclasszero]

4. People with 'illegal' spouses vote for Trump

because they flat do not give one good damn about anyone else on this planet except their own selfish, self and family.

Multiply that by billions across the entire world. Humanity has sown the wind, and will reap the whirlwind. Now it's time to pay up.

The earth will cleanse itself of the pollution and destruction caused by man and go on like we were never here.

Maybe a small remnant will remain, who knows?

Hell is coming on fast now it seems. 80 years from now could be an absolute horror.

Humanity is insane , that's all I got.

[democratisphere]

6. Our planet will erase the scourge that is destroying it.

[Delphinus]

7. Very true.

I have often said the Earth will be fine, will recover. We are so out of balance - Koyaanisqatsi.

[workinclasszero]

10. The cleansing has already begun

Our governments and people in general can still ignore it for now.

Give it 20 years or so and there will be no other news except nature fighting back against the ravages of humanity and how that effects every country and its inhabitants.

The babies in their mothers arms today will curse this generation as they die out.

It didn't have to be this way but $$$$$$$$$$$ was to strong to stop.

[NeoGreen]

11. George Carlin - Saving the Planet

It's too late, so I'm with Carlin, the willfully-ignorant-right-wing-fucking-nut-jobs have won.

Life and earth will survive.

Just fine, without us.

[NickB79]

12. 10 years ago here at DU, this thread would have been packed with responses

From members calling Mr.Lovelock's projections alarmist, doomer and completely unrealistic.

Today, knowing what we now know about how bad the battle against climate change is going, I see there isn't a single such response.

[Boomer]

13. I remember those days, too

Not just on DU, but on the online forums where I would discuss current events and politics. I remember posting a general commentary about the looming existential threat of climate and change and one woman asking me to cite sources. She wasn't a certified climate skeptic, but the entire topic was new enough to her that she challenged my assumptions "without proof".

If current projections are accurate (a bigger "if" as each year goes by) and 2040 is a threshold year, I'll have already made my exit. God help those who remain to deal with the climate apocalypse.

[progree]

14. Unfortunately the stupidity never ends

(Context: a discussion of a planned light rail in Minneapolis to some western suburbs on a Facebook page dominated by righties)

All underlining below is added by me

CAT> We are going to be inundated with climate refugees from our own country. We have a fairly stable environment, a huge number of Fortune 500 companies, and a high standard of living. I am not a fan of this solution, but we do need to start making plans for more and more people move here. We need more low income housing, more realistic transportation options (self driving electric cars for one) and more flexibility of how people can work at home.
14 Replies

Jason> Lol. "Climate Refugees"??

Dan> Lol

CAT> Yes, climate refugees. Where do you think the people of the gulf coast states will head when their land is under water? Florida? East Coast? West Coast? The Dust bowl and tornado alley? Wildfire country? They'll be looking to go somewhere stable. So laugh all you want, we're going to be seeing more and more people coming from areas that can no longer support them.

Donna> 🙄. Cat, about 10,000 years ago, the earth experienced an ice-age. There was frozen water and glaciers throughout the world. When the ice melted, (remember there were no cars and factories emitting carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere back then to be blamed for the melting ice), there was no flooding or catastrophic event. In fact, life flourished after the ice age. Please, as an expert on climate change, enlighten the readers here how you explain this?

CAT> I am not claiming to be an expert on anything except observation. If you don't see that extreme weather is causing more and more problems along the coasts, then you're just not paying attention. My point is we are going to be getting more and more people to our area. End of discussion on my part.

Donna> Extreme weather always was and always will be. It's called "nature". It has nothing to do with man-made anything. Climate change, which used to be called "global warming" until science proved this title was incorrect, is nothing more than a scare tactic to make shysters like Al Gore very wealthy. I welcome you to do your research Cat. That's the end of discussion on my part.

Jason> Donna, we should be more worried about the Tax Refugees heading to SD..

Richard> Cat, Easy way to prove melting glaciers won't flood the world..... fill a glass with ice cubes and water.... will the glass overflow when the ice melts?

John> Richard, The glaciers and ice they are worried about melting are the ones on land -- Greenland and Antarctica primarily. Their melting is already raising sea levels, along with warmer temperatures which causes water to expand.

John> Donna, 16 of the last 17 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001. Atmospheric CO2 levels are nearly 50% higher than 150 years ago (CO2 is a greenhouse gas).

John> Donna, "Climate change, which used to be called "global warming" until science proved this title was incorrect,"

   Both terms are used. "Climate change" is the more general term because more than just warming is happening, e.g. more frequent severe storms, ocean acidification (due to higher CO2 levels, some of which is absorbed by the ocean), and coral bleaching. And no, "science" didn't prove that "global warming" is incorrect. Only a flat-earther type denies that significant warming is occurring. What is arguable is how much is due to human activity, although there is an overwhelming consensus about that by climate scientists. An ideolog yammering away on talk radio is not a scientist. Nor is a biostitute.

John> If you don't believe the temperature measurements, there are plenty of other indicators that warming is occuring --
Looking for signs of global warming? It's all around you , AP, 6/19/18
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/06/19/climate-change-signs-all-around

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I have to laugh at this in particular -- what an idiot. Doesn't watch Nova I guess where ice dams holding back massive lakes of ice melt water broke, submerging whole regions in a few hours.

When the ice melted, (remember there were no cars and factories emitting carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere back then to be blamed for the melting ice), there was no flooding or catastrophic event

.

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Some of the evidence humans are causing the warming:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1127&pid=118890

[NickB79]

15. I figure I have until 2070, if my family history is any indication

I'm 38 now, and every one of my grandparents and great-grandparents lived into their late 80's or later. My great-grandfather was 96 when he went. I'll get to see and experience some serious shit before I go. But that doesn't really scare me. What causes me to wake up crying and sweating in the middle of the night are the nightmares I have of what my 8 yr old daughter will have to live through. I can't count the number of times I've had to watch her die in front of me, or in my arms, in my dreams.

I feel like a monster every day for hoping she doesn't have children of her own.

[The_jackalope]

16. I started posting here about it in 2006

I remember the wars very clearly. I no longer write about collapse issues, because there is nothing useful left to say.

While no Cassandra will be correct in all the details, their vision was unclouded by sentiment or wishful thinking. Like the dirty stinking hippies, they were right.

GliderGuider

[Calculating]

17. How delightfully doom and goomy

Just what I needed in my morning, I was starting to not feel completely depressed for a change.