>>13694992Yes. But climate change isn't a binary issue. The more the global average temp rises, the more issues we have. It's not linear either because of methane deposits, ocean and air current changes, ocean levels and glacier melts, atmospheric co2 and a bunch of other things. So we're looking at something like if we get +2.5c then stuff happens and we get another +2c no matter what, and then if the total goes over +5c we get another +2c no matter what, etc. Latest calculations estimate that we'd need about 10x more greenhouse gases than what we have deposited in all the oil and coal reserves known, to actually get a runaway greenhouse effect. But those estimates are based on estimates on how much carbon sink we'll still have available. And as the temperature, ocean acidification, fires and desertification increases, so too will our carbon sinks decrease. So the real question is: is there a point where our dying carbon sinks will no longer be enough? It's possible.
Either way, the world will become uninhabitable for a vast majority of complex life including humans anywhere near the equator way before then.
As for what went wrong? Greed and selfishness. Not blind greed, people often misunderstand this. It's not that Timmy wants a billion billion and doesn't care if the world burns. It's never that straightforward. It's that EVERY business, the world over, has since forever faced the same dilemma: if you do your thing responsibly but your competition doesn't, then they will win and you will go out of business. So every person, every business has always struggled with having to take shortcuts in order to stay afloat. This is the same reason for concern behind AI development. You can't prohibit it, because whichever makes the better one will win over anyone else.
And this shared greed and individualism, is what is going to kill us. And there is no way to stop it. Even if we had a utopia, people would always be like that. It's in our nature.
