It’s unfortunate that “Global Warming” was the phrase that got lodged in the public’s collective brain, because it’s such a terrible summary of what is actually happening, and idiots run with it.
It can be super difficult to understand, especially when it’s easy to present the same data in multiple ways. Global warming is a thing, and climate change is a thing, but it’s hard to fully experience because daily weather is so variable.
For example, if you look at the last 2000 years of data, we are starting an extremely rapid temperature increase. If you zoom out to a the last 500 million years, our global temperature is still changing, but it doesn’t appear to be extreme.
People just don’t realize that homosapiens only really appeared 200,000 years ago and our distant ancestors started showing up 7 million years ago. Point being, we started evolving in a climate that was cool and then got colder.
For perspective, the first fungi are thought to have first appeared 650 million years ago. They have seen it all and eventually said “fuck this” and now mostly live underground. For good reason.
It’s the acceleration of global warming that is bad. In the last few thousand years, we have erased ~25 million years of the last cool down period. That is bad. Very bad.
The earth will survive climate change just fine, maybe. We won’t, though.
Disclaimer: All numbers are basic estimates and data changes faster than I can keep up with. I am not a scientist, but I can read charts. For my summary here, I used these:
I like this video from Gutsick Gibbon that talks a lot about evolution as it relates/related to climate change and what our future may hold if we don’t change.
It’s unfortunate that “Global Warming” was the phrase that got lodged in the public’s collective brain, because it’s such a terrible summary of what is actually happening, and idiots run with it.
It can be super difficult to understand, especially when it’s easy to present the same data in multiple ways. Global warming is a thing, and climate change is a thing, but it’s hard to fully experience because daily weather is so variable.
For example, if you look at the last 2000 years of data, we are starting an extremely rapid temperature increase. If you zoom out to a the last 500 million years, our global temperature is still changing, but it doesn’t appear to be extreme.
People just don’t realize that homosapiens only really appeared 200,000 years ago and our distant ancestors started showing up 7 million years ago. Point being, we started evolving in a climate that was cool and then got colder.
For perspective, the first fungi are thought to have first appeared 650 million years ago. They have seen it all and eventually said “fuck this” and now mostly live underground. For good reason.
It’s the acceleration of global warming that is bad. In the last few thousand years, we have erased ~25 million years of the last cool down period. That is bad. Very bad.
The earth will survive climate change just fine, maybe. We won’t, though.
Disclaimer: All numbers are basic estimates and data changes faster than I can keep up with. I am not a scientist, but I can read charts. For my summary here, I used these:
All fascinating stuff, even if concerning.
I like this video from Gutsick Gibbon that talks a lot about evolution as it relates/related to climate change and what our future may hold if we don’t change.
https://youtu.be/uxTO2w0fbB4?si=bYoBldeh02glM9wR
The book Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton is a good read