NBER Paper: Climate adaptation methods aren’t working, so we need work on better ones
September 24, 2024
NBER Paper: Climate adaptation methods aren’t working, so we need work on better ones
https://www.nber.org/papers/w32985
by Splenda
2 comments
We are creating a global climate that will be too harsh for our civilization to adapt to. Many places (including most coastal cities) will need to retreat to higher ground. Other regions will become too harsh in terms of wet bulb conditions making them very dangerous for anyone who doesn’t have access to AC.
The biggest problem will be the cost of food and how the climate crisis will lower the carrying capacity of the planet and increase the cost of food production very dramatically (primarily due to erratic weather patterns, but also by rendering many current “breadbasket” areas either too hot/dry and/or via salt water encroachment and rising seas.
I do think there is a good chance humanity itself will survive… but only after a few centuries of very desperate conditions. Almost certainly some areas will remain habitable and more northern areas will become open for food cultivation etc. as they warm, but the disruption between now and then will overwhelm our current systems and plunge us into an era of pervasive wars and extreme politics.
It’s not working by design because those who profit from Earth’s destruction don’t want anything to work. They are the problem.
2 comments
We are creating a global climate that will be too harsh for our civilization to adapt to. Many places (including most coastal cities) will need to retreat to higher ground. Other regions will become too harsh in terms of wet bulb conditions making them very dangerous for anyone who doesn’t have access to AC.
The biggest problem will be the cost of food and how the climate crisis will lower the carrying capacity of the planet and increase the cost of food production very dramatically (primarily due to erratic weather patterns, but also by rendering many current “breadbasket” areas either too hot/dry and/or via salt water encroachment and rising seas.
I do think there is a good chance humanity itself will survive… but only after a few centuries of very desperate conditions. Almost certainly some areas will remain habitable and more northern areas will become open for food cultivation etc. as they warm, but the disruption between now and then will overwhelm our current systems and plunge us into an era of pervasive wars and extreme politics.
It’s not working by design because those who profit from Earth’s destruction don’t want anything to work. They are the problem.