I've shifted my mindset to abandon this idea that humanity will survive forever, or that we should strive to live as long as we can.

Intelligence is a scarcity and it cannot overcome the majority of people that are incredibly stupid or ignorant. So accepting that we are doomed relieves some of the stress. I won't have children to worry about their future, either.

I still live my life in such a way that minimizes my impact on the world as much as possible. I still surround myself with folks that want a better world. But there is no stopping the impending doom and I'm trying not to be miserable with the time I have.

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izzydata 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Ultimately I think it will be a self correcting problem, but there is going to be an extremely long period of absolute hell. Global warming is eventually going to cause food and water scarcity on a level that will wipe out a huge percentage of the Earths population. Then the Earth will recover from there being fewer humans.

If in 3000 years we discover humans were completely wiped out to the last person I would be pretty surprised.

	▲	rolph 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Toba catastrophe theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngest_Toba_eruption#Toba_ca...
	▲	wat10000 an hour ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I agree that human extinction is very unlikely on anything like historical timespans. Maybe in a few million years, like any other species. I do think there's a decent chance of civilizational collapse in the near to medium term. It seems like everything is getting very fragile. So much economic activity revolves around extremely sophisticated machines with many critical components that are manufactured in just a few locations, sometimes a single location. A major war could shatter that, or climate change could push us over a tipping point where those capabilities can no longer be maintained, or it might just be a cascading random breakdown due to the modern economy being so complicated. If it happens, then I'm very pessimistic about the ability to ever come back from it. With all the easily accessible fossil fuels gone, getting industry going again is going to be a really tall order. So humanity might survive a long time, but it may consist of life the way it was in prehistory.
	▲	SoftTalker 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Agree, this is how excesses always get corrected in nature.

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hiccuphippo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I mean, all of humanity has lived in the period between two glacial eras, I don't expect us to go beyond that. This should be clear even to people who choose to ignore the facts about climate change.

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maxerickson an hour ago | parent [-]

We are currently in an ice age.

	▲	gzread 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		What would happen if we weren't? Oh yeah, we'd all die. Maybe we shouldn't cause that to happen.

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dyauspitr 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Humans won’t get wiped out, not by global warming atleast. It’s just going to suck and a lot of us will die.