Miles of Ice Collapsing into the Sea
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
I feel this way, and its part despair, part terror.
That is, I've seen tons of articles recently about how the polar regions are heating up much faster than the rest of the planet, which is obviously bad news for sea levels. In a worse case scenario affecting Greenland and Antarctica, how much would sea levels rise in, say, the next 50 years?
> If [the antarctic] ice sheet were to disintegrate, it could raise the level of the sea by more than 160 feet
EDIT:
Worst case prediction for 2100: 2.5 m
Best case prediction for 2100: 0.3 m
I guess the worst case includes the worst known feedback loops.
I am inspired by people who, on narrowly averting death or calamity, come to an internal understanding that their life is finite and they change their focus based on that to use their time, energy, and resources to make the world as they would like it. In religious teachings there is the idea of 'giving to God' the worries of the world so that one might move forward on their path.
I am not saying it is easy to do, only that it is worthwhile to do because despair and terror can lock you into immobility if you let it, and that only helps make the outcome worse.
"tens of millions of coastal refugees would have to flee inland, potentially straining societies to the breaking point"
First, that's the worst case, not the expected case and even if it did happen, it's not the end of the world. In WWII, we murdered tens of millions of people and strained societies to the breaking point. But the survivors picked themselves up and now we're fine.
Mao did it again in China, but they're back on their feet now too. We've already had several equivalent worst case scenarios happen in the last century.
You presume you can, or even attempt to, "repair" the nature?
What does that even mean?
I commend you for realizing how complex nature is, with its never ending loops and constant change, and our temporal lot within it. But that is a cause for awe and celebration, not freezing in terror and despair!
It certainly doesn't "trivialize everything in your life" -- you're part of the grand show, nature's "optimization grind" toward maximum entropy.
It's actually a pretty simple concept. Humans need particular conditions to live and flourish. We want to maintain and improve those conditions.
Nature is damn big and complex, but it's not beyond the reach of our influence.
Reminds me of the doomsayers that claim humans will "destroy" the earth :D
Mind you, mine is not a call to "do nothing". On the contrary, I say there's no reason to be terrified and in despair (unless you really consider the heat death of the universe as the final outcome). There's lots we can do until then -- it's an awesome ride! Humans are fabulously ingenious, and life fabulously resilient.
Humans on the other hand...