Tuesday, January 30, 2024

A chaotic world

 


Not sure how these two articles fit together. OK, they really don´t, since "Live Science" published them far apart. Still, I kind of wonder...

One of the articles says that although hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, might die as a consequence of climate change, a runaway greenhouse effect - killing everyone (and everything) on Earth - is extremely unlikely, indeed, virtually impossible. 

But the other article (OK, it´s the first link) argues that the climate might become completely chaotic once a certain threshold is overstepped. Forever? But for how long can humanity survive a climate described thus:

>>>But in the worst cases, the researchers found that Earth's climate leads to chaos. True, mathematical chaos. 

>>>In a chaotic system, there is no equilibrium and no repeatable patterns. A chaotic climate would have seasons that change wildly from decade to decade (or even year to year). Some years would experience sudden flashes of extreme weather, while others would be completely quiet. 

>>>Even the average Earth temperature may fluctuate wildly, swinging from cooler to hotter periods in relatively short periods of time. It would become utterly impossible to determine in what direction Earth's climate is headed.

But sure, perhaps small groups of nomadic hunters and gatherers could weather (pun intended) even these conditions?

So the *moderate* alternative is that hundreds of millions die, but human civilization somehow survives? Got it.  

Earth will become a chaotic world, with dire consequences 

Could climate change make humans go extinct?

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