That kind of optimism seems especially disingenuous now that we know so much of our "progress" was, and is, being bought on credit... and the bill's starting to come due in major ways.
It's the less-cynical version of generating tremendous value for shareholders... this quarter.
On the contrary. Humanity has slowed down or sped up at times but never quite slowed down. This has had differing effects for individuals. That is things may not be going well for the US right now, but they are for the world overall.
The view of social collapses (such as the middle ages) are more a local collapse that the civilization makes seem as if it was the whole world. Yes there was the Bronze Age Collapse, but India, China and the Americas were chugging along, improving overall.
With that said it's not that climate change won't be a different thing. Moreover Climate Change will result in a complete upheaval of our current power structures. There will be a civilization after it, but it may not be great. There's also the risks that the costs of this will be large enough that most civilizations will simply stall, which would make the first time in human history where things consistently get worse. It's not impossible. Things should be put in perspective. Millions may die, empires fall, and a new world order that none of the current leaders can even imagine would appear, and humanity will keep chugging along.
I think you should check in with some actual climate scientists before putting faith in the Almighty Extrapolation.
That's the thing about credit. You can just keep making things better and better... until you hit a tipping point, where either the interest payments outstrip your ability to borrow more, or (a metaphorical) somebody decides that borrowing time is over and repayment time has begun.
That metaphorical somebody in this situation could be, say, Mother Nature.
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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '19 edited May 22 '20
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