this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2023

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Frozen methane under the seabed is thawing as oceans warm – and things are worse than we thought (theconversation.com)

submitted 11 months ago by Espiritdescali@futurology.today to c/futurology@futurology.today

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[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Man, I've seen so many articles talking about how shit's way worse than climate projections because we keep finding new variables that we didn't account for.

We've unleashed so many positive feedback loops, I'm not convinced that even if we all got thanos-snapped out of existence RIGHT NOW, full stop to pollution and such... Earth would still be fucked - albeit more slowly - because of those feedback loops.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 11 months ago

Yep. The time when cutting emissions could have prevented wide-spread climate change suffering was probably in the 90s.

And here's my prediction for the future: Pretty soon a wealthy nation will decide it has no choice but to engage in global scale climate engineering. And it will do so still missing a shit-ton of those variables we aren't accounting for. At that point it's probably a coin flip as to whether it will make things better or worse.

[–] Aquila@sh.itjust.works 11 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Earth is only fucked from a human perspective. There will still be numerious vibrant life all through out nature without humans there because we made it unhibatiable for ourselves

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not likely. We're in the middle of a mass extinction event. 70% of all species have gone extinct since the industrial revolution.

[–] Aquila@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Source? Could only find that populations have declined by 60-70%. Also there’s been 5 mass extinctions that we know of. There’s still life on earth. My point is just that nature will continue on without us. Life will adapt.

[–] Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

And the rats and cockroaches shall inherit the earth. Amen.

[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

The only honest answer right now is that we have no idea to what extent climate change will go.

There's life that will persist after humans, but what's to say the feedback loops will stop in time to stay hospitable to those?

Earth could be on track to shed it's atmosphere, or go molten - there comes a point where even the most resilient of extremophiles won't be able to persist, and Earth just becomes another completely lifeless rock floating through space.

Or we die off, the climate stabilizes, and everything's just fine for the critters that haven't gone extinct yet.

Or anywhere in between.

But we can't assume one way or another.

/shrug

[–] set_secret@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

This is most likey the correct scenario. We may as well just continue with businesses as usual so we can get it over with. These pretend debates we're having about halting it are a joke at this point. It's pretty clear that greed and delusional denial will ultimately be the end of our civilisation.

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 1 points 11 months ago

Worse than I thought? I thought it is really bad so no.

[+] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip -17 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Click bait news always annoys me. You aren't going die anytime soon. I've talked to people who a literally stressed all the time because of headlines like this.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 14 points 11 months ago

Why care about the future now, asks someone in Futurology at futurology dot today.

[–] maniel@beehaw.org 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a problem anyway, but not in the way the article says it is, ever heard of Storegga slide? Methane clathrates hold much of continental shelves together, if they fall well gonna get pretty big tsunamis

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think more people die in car related deaths than Tsunamis. You are focusing on the unlikely and then spending tons of time pondering it. Its unhealthy and leads to poor mental health.

[–] maniel@beehaw.org 1 points 11 months ago

Tsunamis nowadays come from earth quakes, potential tsunamis from underwater slides, despite it's low probability would kill millions in coastal areas, but yeah, maybe I'm paranoid because I've read The Swarm by Frank Schätzing,

I mean still it's a widely accepted and real concept

[+] kryllic@programming.dev -15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's profitable to keep an audience in a state of constant fear so they keep checking to make see if it's sorted itself out. Then the 2-week news cycle happens, and the old fear is replaced by a new fear.

Climate change isn't going to end humanity, but it will change our living conditions. And so what? Humans are excellent at adapting to their environment. The ice age didn't doom humanity.

I feel like the current concerns tend to get way overblown out of proportion. Remember that world-ending solar flare that keeps making the rounds every couple months? Still waiting for that to materialize. Fearmongering is so cringe and yet so many people fall for it.

[–] set_secret@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

there is a lot of stupid to unpack here,but im gunna try anyway...

The idea that it's profitable to keep an audience in fear is a bit of a cynical oversimplification. Sure, media thrives on sensationalism, but that doesn't mean every threat they report is fabricated. Sometimes, the wolf is real, even if the villagers have cried wolf a hundred times.

Now, climate change. It's not about it being the end of humanity (although ot still may be), but rather about the scale and speed of the change.

Comparing it to the ice age? That's apples and oranges. The ice age was a gradual process over thousands of years. Climate change is happening over decades. That's like comparing a slow cooker to a microwave.

Yes, humans adapt, but at what cost? Loss of biodiversity, extreme weather, displacement of millions?

These aren't minor inconveniences. They're massive challenges with real human and ecological tolls.

And about the solar flare scare, just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It's a low probability, high impact event. It's like not wearing a seatbelt because you've never been in a car crash.

Fearmongering is one thing, but willful ignorance? That's a whole different level of cringe.