• FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    I think we also aren’t giving humans enough survivability credit. There have been native peoples who have lived from deserts, arctics, jungles and everything in between. A lot of this often relys on the natural environment but humans are surprsingly resourceful. Anything modern societies consider junk or trash now could still be used be it as fuel, makeshift tools or they repair it enough to use it. So long as the people in the society can reach sexual maturity, humans will live on.

    Theres an episode of survivor man where he spends a few days on an arctic coast and a lot of what he relied on at times was the trash that floated in from the ocean. Something like a broken plastic barrel can provide shelter.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      12 days ago

      Only during the Holocene period. We’re very resourceful, but there are limitations. The breaking point may not be our own selves, but things we rely on like food and water and temperature control.

      I mean, sure. We may find ways to adapt, new food sources, get lucky with the weather behavior. Anyone who says they’re sure of the future is lying. It just seems very unlikely in a runaway hothouse Earth scenario that we can do well. Large animal forms didn’t do well in the last heating event (the PETM) and ones that survived evolved into smaller forms to do so (large exotherms don’t do well with heat removal). They evolved because the PETM took tens of thousands of years to ramp up. I’m sure you’ve seen the science reports about how current rate of heating is faster than anything we have geologic evidence of before.

      The next heatwaves will give a glimpse into how well we can adapt. The western world has its technology and energy to rely on for a while, the rest of the world doesn’t.