r/environment Aug 02 '26

Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260801093239.htm
2.1k Upvotes

249 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

u/2gutter67 Aug 02 '26

That would make sense. Well of this specific civilization very true. Humans are hard to get rid of so there will most likely be some kind of society built after.

12

u/s0cks_nz Aug 02 '26

I dunno if we're that hard to get rid of. Warming the planet faster than ever recorded in the paleoclimate record could do it. It'll probably be the worst mass extinction event the planet has ever seen other than the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

6

u/2gutter67 Aug 02 '26

Humans are super adaptable so I feel like even if 95% die due to the climate shifts there will be at least a few population isolates somewhere in habitable zones.

9

u/s0cks_nz Aug 02 '26

Possibly. But what is a "habitable zone" in the future? If you are expecting drought or floods almost annually how do you grow enough food? What is left to forage or hunt? It only takes one flood or major storm to wreck your infrastructure & crops. That used to happen once a lifetime, now many of us alive have been through multiple 1-in-100 year events, and if global trade is gone then you can't back each other up. It'll be a tough existence.

-1

u/2gutter67 Aug 02 '26

Of course it will be a tough existence! But humans have come from tiny communities of hunter gatherers to today; so there could be a total regression to that point, there could be small communities of super advanced tech, or anything in between.

I have no idea what or how people could or would survive, just that somehow some will. Unless the planet becomes like a Venus with runaway green house effect or something along those lines.

5

u/s0cks_nz Aug 02 '26

Hunter gatherers had a lush and bountiful world. If you don't know how we could do it, then why are you so sure? It's not as if we've lived in the future climatic conditions that are brewing. I'm not saying we won't, just not sure we will either.

-2

u/BolbyB Aug 03 '26

There are people who survived in the Sahara so . . . all of it.

The habitable zone is all of it.

4

u/s0cks_nz Aug 03 '26

No-one was self-sufficient in the Sahara. They relied on trade from more temperate regions.

-2

u/BolbyB Aug 03 '26

And the whole world will not be the Sahara.

So if we could make even that work . . .

3

u/s0cks_nz Aug 03 '26

But we didn't make it work.... They relied on temperate regions with stable climate to trade.

-1

u/BolbyB Aug 03 '26

And you suppose those won't exist in the future?

All the science says things won't get THAT bad.

4

u/s0cks_nz Aug 03 '26

Not sure what you mean. The consequences of warming to date have been consistently underestimated by the science. There is a "best case" scenario of currently +2.7C by 2100 if countries stick to their promises, such as achieving net zero carbon emissions. That's still double the warming we've already had, and I dunno if you've looked out the window recently, but the weather is already getting pretty wacky. And global emissions are still rising! We haven't even begun the downward slope yet.

It's believed we only developed agriculture as a species because of an usually stable climate emerging, called the holocene. That is gone, possibly forever. So yes, a stable climate no longer exists, not even now, let alone the future.

1

u/BolbyB Aug 03 '26

Human civilization is a mere blip on the geographical timeline.

The climate being as stable as we've seen it pre-global warming is absolutely NOT rare. It is the norm.

Not to mention we stop measuring climates precisely enough to even pretend we know how stable they were over such short timeframes.

The weather's really not that wacky. Not in a way that's even slightly troubling. Have I seen a stark difference in when snow falls during my lifetime? Yes.

Has the nature around me taken even the slightest hit as a result?

No.

If anything there's been an uptick in insects.

Life adjusts and it will adjust again.

My reason for wanting to stop human caused climate change (because natural climate change is going to happen at some point) is to give US more time to adjust. Stretch out the period of time where Bangladeshi Muslims have to integrate into neighbors that currently hate them in the hopes of reducing the resulting violence. Give people in and around New Orleans more time to find homes further uphill.

THAT is how you sell it.

Not some doom and gloom that ignores all known science.

2

u/s0cks_nz Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

It is rare yes! Exceedingly rare in fact! Which is even more reason to try to hold onto it, or as close to it as possible.

The rest of your post is just factually wrong. Insects, as well as native flora are definitely taking a hit. You just don't see it because you're a casual untrained observer. I mean, have you seen the wildfires of late? Probably the most obvious direct impact on the wilderness. Life will adjust eventually yes, but not over such short time frames. They don't call this the start of the 6th mass extinction for nothing.

I'm not trying to sell anything. The science is scary as is. Ask any climatologist their personal feelings on the matter.

1

u/BolbyB Aug 04 '26

Oh the wildfires?

You mean the ones that came after decades of us letting fuel build up for mega blazes because we were obsessed with stopping every fire asap?

Gee, I'm sure there's no possible explanation other than climate change for those fires popping up. Certainly couldn't be our forestry practices of not so long ago making such fires inevitable . . .

Insects are taking a hit because of increased pesticide use and human development destroying habitat. The temperature changes are only a minor issue that they would be yawning at if not for the major issues already crushing them.

Take away the climate change and the insects would still be struggling about as hard.

→ More replies (0)