The Climate Crisis: Why does it Matter?

Recently I replied to a comment on Youtube, and I decided it should be pulled out into an article of its own.

The comment was from user peepeepoopoo5932, who asked:

I'm curious why it would be a problem since by definition, all the coal and oil used to literally be CO2 in the atmosphere at one point. doesn't that mean we could literally burn all of it and we'd be the exact same as when it started?

Well, yes, we could, but the where it started was a rather different place and time.

At the time when a large fraction of that CO₂ was in the atmosphere the world was during the period that we now call the Carboniferous, approx 360–330 million years ago, with average global temperatures of about 20°C (compared to current 15°C) and CO₂ concentrations around 8x higher than now. That is probably more than a 4.5°C warming over what we know.

And of course it is also not true that all the carbon in all the coal, gas and oil we know of used to be in the atmosphere at the same point in time... the Earth has quite a capacity to store or release carbon in other ways.

The critical point: The planet itself is not in danger and never has been. Even Life on Earth (in some form) is not in danger. The existential danger is to Human beings.

Homo "Sapiens".

Us.

We have developed a civilisation that depends on a nice stable climate, known periods of wet and dry, daily temperatures normally within the range we can cope with, known ranges of sea level, known ranges of wind speed, relatively low hurricane and tornado incidence etc, and in the last 250 or so years have become very, very dependent on that consistency.

We know very well from biology that species that specialise in an ecological niche are far more likely to suffer when (not if) that niche changes --- and we humans have now specialised. Not in a specific niche (like "alpine meadow", or "temperate river valley") but instead in a "niche-set", a group of niches that we have become accustomed to. For example, "mountain hill meadows that are frost-free in summer", "temperate lowlands without major floods", or "seaside land with moderate temperature and consistent sea level".

The Climate Crisis is changing those niche-sets, and fast. We humans can probably cope, if we want to, by moving population centres, by changing where and how we grow our food and even what we eat, by conserving and storing water supplies, by being smarter with energy use, and more. We will have to accept massive human population migrations (order of millions) as people leave places that can no longer sustain life -- or if not, accept as they(we) die, as has happened in California (fire, flood), South Australia(fire, flood), Spain(fire, heat), France(heat), India(heat, fire, flood), Germany(flood, heat), Beijing(flood), New Orleans(flood), ....

Sadly many of the plants and animals that share the planet with us will not cope with this rapid a change and so will die out (indeed, this is already happening), and we are just starting to understand the huge extent to which the network of life on Earth is interdependent and intertwined. Humans, even humans with technology, are no exception.

We depend on specific bacteria in our gut and elsewhere for our very life, and we do not have the ability (by ourselves) to create those bacteria. We depend on oxygen in the atmosphere put there (largely) by plants, and even more, we depend on those plants removing CO₂ from the atmosphere (we die from carbon dioxide poisoning before we die from lack of oxygen). We depend on plants directly for food and minerals and micronutrients that we barely understand, but which when missing cause us significant health issues. Many of us depend on meat for protein, and yet our flocks and herds are struck down with disease exacerbated by climate change. We depend on rice and wheat, yet they are attacked by mould and fungi, and the fields are flattened by storm and wind. We depend on a wondrous but fragile net of life and we are just watching as it is flayed and ripped apart.

We do not even know if we are killing species that we depend on, as they die out. In essence, we are playing Russian Roulette with our whole species' future.

If we don't want to be in the list of species that die out, we have to adapt to the climate we have wrought at a far faster rate than we have to date.

So?

The Youtube post was on the Just Have a Think channel and watching it might provide more context on what is going on. Basically, we (humans) have to do what it takes to control the fossil fuel lobby (who are spending millions trying to delay and minimise transition away from oil and gas) and speed up the transition away from burning fossil fuels (at all).

To make this possible requires spending some of the over $2 trillion dollars a year spent on direct fossil fuel company subsidies (according to the IMF) and redirect that to the energy transition, to crisis mitigation, and to enabling the non-industrialised world to skip their own fossil fuelled industrial revolution.

In the process, this will create many good jobs, enable a healthier human and animal population, and probably (if we get it right) bring in an age of nearly free energy for all, as those using solar panels already partially enjoy.

If we don't get it right - well, lets say I would prefer not to live in that dark place!