The problem climate change driven by manmade factors is the rapidity of it. Our infrastructure is built on a certain level of climate stability. We can gradually adapt to changes, but if those changes happen very quickly, it will come at significant hardship. Coastal cities can move further back, farming patterns can change, water resources can be redistributed, but on much longer timescales without risk of harm than what we are looking at as a significant possibility.subgenius wrote:that is inevitable at any rate is it not?
quit impeding progress in order to conserve what you presume your grand-kids will esteem or value. To anchor them to your ideals seems rather conservative, don't it?
One popular denialist canard is to simply point out the earth has had globally hotter temperatures, much more so, in the past and it's still around. So why worry? Well, the earth also had drastically different climatic conditions and land/water constitution during those periods as well. Adjusting to that quickly could cost a tremendous amount of resources and lives in the process, which isn't something we want to see happen. On top of that, human development has driven ecosystems to more fragile states that could be simply wiped out under quickly advancing changes in weather conditions. Redwood forests migrate slowly as it is, but they won't grow on top of human settlements. The historical epocs associated with truly rapid climate change also involve mass extinction events. The planet may be fine, but the organisms currently living on it may be in deep trouble. The worst mass extinction event in earth's history is believed to have been caused by a rapid, significant change in climate. Almost all life on earth was wiped out in that one.