Good luck saving the world

[Pæs]

Here's the bad news, Slim... and I hate to be the one to reach up into the fluffy white cloud in which your dreams play out but you can be as smart and rational and RIGHT as you damn well please but you're not going to convince anyone who doesn't already want to believe you.

You can have the facts behind you and a little bag of proofs that you're no doubt mighty proud of but unless you can tell a man of God that God's not watching in that secret little language that believers use to speak to each other, you haven't got a chance of being heard.

You can have a notebook full of observations and a commitment to the notion that scientific language communicating scientific evidence is the proper way to display the veracity of scientific notions but climate change denial is a POLITICAL POSITION and nobody is going to trust the kind of dodgy "science" that supports left-wing crackpottery.

These people are immune to your attempts at persuasion, making such attempts mere gestures of outrage and impotence at a target which is more often a decoy. A convenient approximation of your enemy image, an appropriate recipient for your pre-rehearsed disagreements and slogans and dismissals; all more designed to effect in you a happy self-righteous buzz than change in your target's worldview... and all the while you build yourself up into a frothing rage at the idea of a person who gets so invested in their stupid idea and their need to assert dominance to coax a high from the primitive dispensary built into their skulls... a frothing rage which contains, packaged within, an implication of superiority which fulfils your own needs as a primate by dismissing those of your foe.

But unless you can learn how to talk to these people in the secret little language they use to talk to each other, these ideas, whose propagation you believe necessary for the continuation of our species, are going to die with you.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I like!

But unless you can learn how to talk to these people in the secret little language they use to talk to each other, these ideas, whose propagation you believe necessary for the continuation of our species, are going to die with you.

Not really too sold on the continuation of our species, tho. Would be a bit of a shame if that happened.

[Kai]

Here's the bad news, Slim... and I hate to be the one to reach up into the fluffy white cloud in which your dreams play out but you can be as smart and rational and RIGHT as you damn well please but you're not going to convince anyone who doesn't already want to believe you.

You can have the facts behind you and a little bag of proofs that you're no doubt mighty proud of but unless you can tell a man of God that God's not watching in that secret little language that believers use to speak to each other, you haven't got a chance of being heard.

You can have a notebook full of observations and a commitment to the notion that scientific language communicating scientific evidence is the proper way to display the veracity of scientific notions but climate change denial is a POLITICAL POSITION and nobody is going to trust the kind of dodgy "science" that supports left-wing crackpottery.

These people are immune to your attempts at persuasion, making such attempts mere gestures of outrage and impotence at a target which is more often a decoy. A convenient approximation of your enemy image, an appropriate recipient for your pre-rehearsed disagreements and slogans and dismissals; all more designed to effect in you a happy self-righteous buzz than change in your target's worldview... and all the while you build yourself up into a frothing rage at the idea of a person who gets so invested in their stupid idea and their need to assert dominance to coax a high from the primitive dispensary built into their skulls... a frothing rage which contains, packaged within, an implication of superiority which fulfils your own needs as a primate by dismissing those of your foe.

But unless you can learn how to talk to these people in the secret little language they use to talk to each other, these ideas, whose propagation you believe necessary for the continuation of our species, are going to die with you.

Or, you know, those sorts of positions are dying out, a slow torturous death but still leaving. Many of these ideas only survive in isolation, and as tribes become less and less isolated, as growth and globalization require more interactions, the small ideas will fade. Besides, I think you underestimate the capacity of human minds to change.

[Lord Cataplanga]

...I think you underestimate the capacity of human minds to change.

I'm sure human minds can change... eventually.
Climate change is a time-sensitive issue, so I think Paes has a valid concern.

[Dildo Argentino]

Is there a scenario, though, under which climate change can do away with the whole of humanity? (A large chunk, sure, but the whole of it?)

[Faust]

Is there a scenario, though, under which climate change can do away with the whole of humanity? (A large chunk, sure, but the whole of it?)

Gas balance changes of breathable gas mix or well anything to do with the atmosphere can kill us outright.

Worldwide flooding would also do it.

Harmful solar radiation can render life unlivable, even if the radiation doesn't kill you the famine or temperature rise will.

There's loads more but those are off the top of my head.

[Pere Ubu]

Is there a scenario, though, under which climate change can do away with the whole of humanity? (A large chunk, sure, but the whole of it?)

One word: war.

Changing growing seasons, changing growing areas, Changing water distribution, with areas uninhabitable due to flooding or drought. Fighting over access to newly opened resource areas in the Arctic. The refugee crises the fighting will produce, on top of the seeming present rise of nationalism.

Wheee? 

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

The food supply's going to get real fucked up, too, between insects and jellyfish and whatnot.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Yeah, fucking jellyfish    About a decade ago there was a news report warning us that "rare" lion's mane jellyfish had been spotted in scottish water and care should be taken. Nowadays on most of the surf breaks I frequent, there's often more lions manes than fucking water.

Now I'm hearing Portugese man-o-war have been spotted. Shit just got real!

[Dildo Argentino]

Loss of atmospheric shielding from solar radiation and all-out nuclear war appear to be the strongest contenders, but even they may not succeed in wiping out our tenatious if unwholesome species altogether. The others, I think, would almost certainly be survived by sufficient numbers to keep the species viable... which may be just a few thousand or tens of thousands... it's also interesting to think about the variations in survivor demographic depending on the cause.

[Cain]

-

[Dildo Argentino]

Is there a scenario, though, under which climate change can do away with the whole of humanity? (A large chunk, sure, but the whole of it?)

Yes.  Over six degrees (celsius) of increase in temperature could, in theory, bring about a methan hydrate collapse.  Methane releases over time would saturate the water table, bringing about a parcel methane-gas-saturated process, which releases a cascading stream of bubbles as the dissolved gas fizzzes out because of the falling hydrostatic pressure and...

Well, I'm not the best person to explain the science, but I've been lead to believe it leads to a big ocean-based explosion.  And by big, I mean "nuclear-equivalent if not larger".  Such explosive force, especially taking place in water, could bring about a nuclear winter. 

The processes that lead to this would also cause an anoxic effect, killing most ocean life off and shutting down global ocean convection. 

Some people would survive, but they'd be in bunkers, and would only last as long as the food and clean water persisted.

Right, thanks, I can see that.