Do we all have children and grandchildren.Do we realise what sort of world we are going to bequeath to them when we're six feet under.Do we think we know better than 95% of the world's climate scientists and the warnings they are telling us. Tipping points will be upon us all rich and poor young and old children and grandchildren. Vitriol towards one another will count as nothing if we can't find a way. sacrifices will need to be made but don't we think it worth it for the sake of our children and grandchildren and their children.
For those who remember Corporal Jones in Dad's Army - Don't panic!!
Few civilisations in human history have dominated for more than a few hundred years - why should the industrial age be any different. 100 years is a very long lifetime covering ~4 generations. What may happen 500 or 1000 years from now is of no practical, but entirely academic interest
Tipping points occur when the impact of climate change is of a magnitude that recovery to an earlier state is implausible.
This does not mean it happens suddenly. Examples:
Melting of the Greenland ice sheet could cause sea level rise of 23ft - catastrophic for a large part of the global population who disproportionately live close to the sea. However complete melt is estimated at several hundred to several thousand years.
Melting of the Antarctic sea ice could cause sea level rise of ~200ft. Timescales are completely uncertain - best estimates of melt over the next 200 years is for a 10ft rise.
For those countries economically and/or topographically vulnerable (eg: Bangladesh, some Pacific islands) changes could impact current inhabitants and/or very direct descendants.
Those fortunate to be economically relatively wealthy (eg: Europe, US) have the capacity to mitigate and adapt (mostly).
Climate changes more than ~100 years into the future will impact none that we will ever know.
If the prognosis for ice melt and sea level rise are correct, they will be as far removed from our current experience as stone age man or (possibly) the Roman empire.
If over the centuries or millennia global homo sapiens are reduced to just 10% of their current number this may be the best outcome for the long term survival of the species - it is our excessive numbers and exploitation of the environment that has caused its degradation anyway.
I write none of this out of complacency or lack of concern for those I leave behind - I support modifying behaviours to limit and slow negative change. There is a moral argument for those unable to help themselves, despite living in one of the wealthier global communities.
There are characteristics in common with the animal kingdom where individual species dominate, consume all local resources, followed by population collapse. For all our intellect we are simply animals who have over-exploited and outgrown our environment. Nature is operating normally!!
