Collapse

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This is the place for discussing the potential collapse of modern civilization and the environment.

Collapse, in this context, refers to the significant loss of an established level or complexity towards a much simpler state. It can occur differently within many areas, orderly or chaotically, and be willing or unwilling. It does not necessarily imply human extinction or a singular, global event. Although, the longer the duration, the more it resembles a ‘decline’ instead of collapse.

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I’m a climate scientist. If you knew what I know, you’d be terrified too (edition.cnn.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Editor’s Note: Bill McGuire is professor emeritus of geophysical & climate hazards at University College London and author of “Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide.”

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The heating alone would do that, yes. It's the knock-on effects. As CO~2~ rises, the ocean slowly acidifies. As the ocean increasingly acidifies, oxygen producing lifeforms (approximately 70% of the oxygen we consume is produced in the ocean) increasingly die out. The Amazon Rainforest (a large producer of oxygen on land) is on fire. What will we breathe? It's an ecological apocolypse, not merely from getting hot (which your comment seriously underestimates the direct effects of) but from the previously mentioned oxygen crash, and hundreds of other effects that we know about and can reliably predict.

edit: some light reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

You left out increasingly unpredictable weather patterns that would make it harder to grow crops and vegetables.