Do you believe in “climate doom”?

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It’s no debate anymore that the Earth is warming and that it’s caused by humans. People used to debate that, but now we clearly know that we’re causing climate change.

However, now the debate is how bad climate change is. While a climate change denier probably wouldn’t care about the environment, a person who thinks it is a severe, existential emergency might care either more or *less* than someone who thinks it is less of an issue than the pandemic even, because that kind of panic can lead to irrational actions. So it’s also debatable whether being a “climate doomer” as I’d call it means you are taking caution, or just means you are panicking or else giving up and living like there’s no tomorrow.

I have been a “climate doomer” before, and depending on what I’ve been reading I fluctuate between that and a more moderate idea of how severe the threat is. I actually find it easier to be environmentally friendly when I’m not in a “climate doomer” phase, ironically.

The drought in my county has the reservoir 9 inch's down.

The weather is crazy

Scientists say oceans levels will rise at least 250 feet so we will never live on atolls. While towns and cities will be underwater, not all of it will be so people will either move or rebuild. It was happen slowly so people will have time to adjust.

Areas that used to be unlivable may become livable because of climate change. They say rising oceans will change our climate too.

Looking at the sea level of my house, I know I will end up on a island when oceans levels rise that high but bridges will be built, there will still be land around here. I won't be alive by the time this happens.

We all these wild fires and then we finally got rain so that is a good thing.


I wouldn't say I am a climate doomer.

Where I live, the polar vortexes are causing record cold temperatures.

Jan 2019
99-year-old temperature records shattered in southeast Michigan
https://www.theoaklandpress.com/news/lo ... acbdf.html

Aug 2020
At least two more frosts or freezes coming with near-record cold in Michigan
https://www.mlive.com/weather/2020/04/a ... rZf-mACL70

Changes? Yes.
Problems? Yes.
Doom? No, unless humans start a major war, but it's up to humans.

I wish I didn't.

Not at least but at most 80m. That's roughly the change in sea level if all the existing glaciers melt.

I don't buy the idea that humanity is changing the climate. Its more about money, politics and government control over ever aspect of our lives.

The impact of climate change will most likely be felt most by those who cannot mitigate the impacts.

Rising sea levels due to climate change may not spell doom for the Netherlands (in the short run, at least), as the Dutch have both the funds and the technology to introduce mitigation measures.

But rising sea levels may be an much more catastrophic occurrence to a country like Bangladesh, where much of the country is at an even lower elevation than the Netherlands.

Bangladesh has less than one 10th of the GDP per capita (PPP) of the Netherlands, but 9.6 times the population and 2.8 times the population density. Mitigating rising sea levels is going to be a massive challenge, and the possible internal displacement of millions of people due to rising sea levels may destabilize the country and neighbouring regions.

It may not qualify as doom, but one might want to think carefully before making heavy long-term investments in Dhaka waterside real estate.

^^^
Plus most European metropolitan cities are not on the ocean.

If sea levels go up you kiss the US eastern and western seaboard goodbye.

I'm 125 miles from Boston but in 75 yeas I could be on a beach.I doubt though I will be alive then though.

First of all thanks for asking the relevant question. I believe in climate change, I don't believe in climate doom based on a few points:

Timescale of climate change: We warm on average ~0.1 C per decade. Sea level rise is ~1 inch per decade. This is exceptionally fast on a geologic timescale but very slow on a human timescale.

Timescale of human innovation: In 70 years we went from unable to fly to landing on the moon. In a different 70 years the computing power that used to take an entire building of vacuum tubes can later be fit on a single computer chip.

In 70 years we may be ~0.7C warmer, and our sea levels may be ~7 inches higher, but I expect our ability to combat those challenges will be greatly improved.

From a pragmatic standpoint there's not really another option than trust we can innovate our way past these challenges. People advocating for major cuts in carbon output are generally unaware of the massive technological challenges in achieving that (its not nearly as simple as just build solar panels/wind mills and drive electric cars). People advocating for minor measures (like the Paris accords), by the climate models achieve almost nothing over a timescale of 70 years.

Climate change, land degradation, overfishing, mass extinction, loss of biodiversity, and a host of other factors makes this the a huge problem we need to solve--and we need to solve it because we created it. And the effects are not even across the globe, either in terms of sea level rise or temperatures. All current projections also seem to be conservative. The carbon contribution of the melting of the permafrost in arctic areas is starting to be understood. We don't understand the temperature and acidity changes in our oceans is going to affect our fisheries. Even a fraction of a degree difference in water temperature can change the gender distribution in a population.

If you are not concerned about climate change, you simply don't understand it.