While there was a lot of FUD in the media, there were also a lot of scenarios that were actually possible but were averted due to a LOT of work and attention ahead of time. It should be looked at, IMO, as a success of communication, warnings, and a lot of effort that nothing of major significance happened.

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tejohnso 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, Y2K is a success story, similar to the alert and response related to ozone layer and CFCs.

Dissimilar to the global climate catastrophe, unfortunately.

---

The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/74/12/812/780859...

"Tragically, we are failing to avoid serious impacts"

"We have now brought the planet into climatic conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives within our genus, Homo"

"Despite six IPCC reports, 28 COP meetings, hundreds of other reports, and tens of thousands of scientific papers, the world has made only very minor headway on climate change"

"projections paint a bleak picture of the future, with many scientists envisioning widespread famines, conflicts, mass migration, and increasing extreme weather that will surpass anything witnessed thus far, posing catastrophic consequences for both humanity and the biosphere"

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timschmidt 9 hours ago | parent [-]

I don't mean to lessen the impact of that statement. I think climate change is a serious problem. But also most of the geologic time that genus Homo has existed, Earth has been in an ice age. Much of which we'd consider a "snowball Earth". The last warm interglacial period, the Eemian, was 120,000 years ago.

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tejohnso 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's an interesting bit of detail. As you intended, it does not lessen the impact of the statement: "conditions never witnessed by us or our prehistoric relatives". It confirms it, with some additional context.

To me, it seems to make it even more significant. Because as you point out, Homo evolved under ice age conditions over millions of years. Well, here we are about to be thrust into uncharted territory, in an extremely short period of time. With very fragile global interdependencies, an overpopulated planet, and billions of people exposed to the consequences.

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nkrisc 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The genus Homo dates back nearly 2 million years.

	▲	timschmidt 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes. And virtually all of that time has been colder than average: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m... Sometimes a great deal so. Sometimes less. But nearly always below average. For our whole existence. That's why the choice of wording struck me. You can zoom out a bit more and it just gets clearer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m... Further out and we're still one of the coldest periods: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record#/m... We're ice-age dwellers. Always have been. I can both be alarmed at how quickly the ice age humanity has evolved within is ending, and find that a very funny way of phrasing it. These things don't conflict in me, though it seems triggering to some. People are downvoting me with moral conscience, but I'm just over here laughing at a funny conjunction of paleoclimate and word choice. :) People getting offended by it kinda makes it funnier.

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john_strinlai 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

this is the same style comment as "no offense, but <offensive thing>"

if you didnt intend to lessen the impact of that statement, why say something that is specifically meant to lessen the impact of the statement? just say what you want to say without the hedging.

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philipwhiuk 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What you just wrote is the same as: 'the entire lifecycle of humanity has no precursor to the conditions' we are about to face.

We aren't facing the ice age that has been the last 120,000 years.

I'm sure the rocky planet will survive just fine, maybe even some extreemophiles, even if we completely screw up the atmosphere. Not 6 billion humans though.

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yfontana 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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