Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland

Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by jorblumesea on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:27PM (#20538484)

I guess it depends on what you mean by "threatened". Sure, humans will continue to exist, we won't go extinct, at least not globally. But we're looking at local and possibly global societal collapse. If we're back 500 years in the past developmentally and technologically, that's a huge deal. Maybe even if you survive, can you go back to a world without vaccines, antibiotics and mass communication?

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by crispyporkbites on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:30PM (#20538507)

Do you think we can lose 500 years of tech development globally? I can see some areas becoming challenging and definitely a slowdown in progress but it seems unlikely that all this knowledge will evaporate

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by jorblumesea on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:39PM (#20538580)

I don't have a good answer to that question, I'm not sure anyone does. But if society collapses, much of that knowledge goes with it. Our society is incredibly complex and fragile, with a very high degree of specialization. That makes us vulnerable to these kinds of issues.

While the "dark ages" were hardly dark and ignorant, the collapse of the Roman empire meant advanced road building and concrete were lost for 1500 years. So there is some historical precedent here.

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by noir_lord on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:59PM (#20538713)

500 years would put us back to 1500ish, I can’t see that, steam technology and electric motors/turbines are simply doable (and where done) with not much technology to boot strap from, hand tools made machines which made specialised machines which repeated for generations but the first step comes back to steam and electrification.

It’s not like every book in every library would or could disappear.

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by VBprogrammer on Friday July 26, 2019 @06:03PM (#20538755)

I think there is a problem with knowledge being very dencly concentrated and supply chains being so long.

If you took someone who worked in a steel mill I bet they would have no idea how to produce steel from first principles. They know what their job entails, they know which bits of equipment need serviced an maintained but they don't know how to get from rocks to bar stock.

Similarly if you had a perfectly working steel mill and you cut the supply of coke or iron ore few would know how to get it up and running again. If you cut the supply of the alloying elements you might get a passable mild steel but not one to the exact specifications you require.

I think it's probably surprising how few vital links you have to cut before life as we know it breaks down.

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by jpindar on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:59PM (#20538712)

We might lose electronics and such, but we won't forget that a wood stove is more efficient than an open fireplace. We won't forget that it's a good idea to dig your outhouse far away from your source of drinking water.

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by MiroF on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:30PM (#20538509)

as a reminder, the original comment was "I don't see how we are getting out of this alive"

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Re:Europe's record heat wave moves toward Greenland by adrianN on Friday July 26, 2019 @05:34PM (#20538532)

A lot of people will die due to climate change and the ensuing political instability.

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