Global Warming Debate

[Ingwe]

I think that's really what's happening at all scales. The more powerful humanity gets, the more good they could do for themselves in the short term for individuals, but the more damage they do to the entire ecosystem as time goes on. No matter what buttons are pressed, disaster is guaranteed. Humanity will most likely not survive this century, be it from the climate problems, or more likely from religious wars - wars designed to defend some indestructible God which sounds far beyond idiocy to begin with, or perhaps from some unperceived threat. A meteor or something like that probably won't be our end, whether we survive this century or not.

By 200 years from now, technologies will exist that will prevent us from our own extinction - by a meteor perhaps. But nothing will stop the solar cycle from being our true doom. Although the sun will become unstable, it already has begun, humanity will not be able to survive anymore than the next 10 million years I'd imagine. Over long periods of time, we will not even be able to adapt to the sort of changes that are in store.

And in 250 million years, when Pangaea Ultima is expected to form, the climate and oxygen levels will fluctuate wildly, dooming us (if we're here) to either leave the planet and find another home, or accept annihilation. The way the Earth's changed in just the last 100 years, I don't know if I want to be around for longer than another 200 or 300 years. But I know that my kids will grow up in a generation worse than my own now. It doesn't seem there's anything that will stop this next generation from being anything short of the worst nightmare since the middle ages.

But I'm generally a pessimist about everything, because history teaches a cold lesson wrapped in an even colder truth - that although my life may be great, there are more people suffering out there than not. I don't know, that's a bit hard to accept without doing something about it. But I hope this time that humanity can figure out a better way of aleviating suffering than going to war just to thin out our numbers all over again. I look to the days when people can accomplish great tasks without having to increase the body count in the process.