A few years ago, I watched a documentary about the making of the movie Fitzcaraldo. One section that made me chuckle was when the narrator said that scientists predict that the Amazon rainforest will be totally gone by the year 2010. Obviously that didn't happen.

I wouldn't feel too hopeless about things just based off of a study whose timescale is roughly the same as cold fusion research. We still had the rainforest in 2010 because people changed their behavior and the rate of deforestation decreased. There's still time to change things.

> scientists predict that the Amazon rainforest will be totally gone by the year 2010. Obviously that didn't happen.

Wouldn't that be natural to expect because of efforts to extend its lifetime?

If this study has a positive effect on policies, etc. I think it'd also be natural to expect that it lives longer than 2064. I interpret 2064 as being the end of its lifetime only if we do absolutely nothing more to prevent it.

It feels a lot worse if you have children and worry about the fate of future generations during climate land-wars and migration.

Should’ve thought about that before deciding to have children.

What if his kids will make it worse, and yours would have made it better?

The Amazon was a human invention†. We can build back better.

† https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/pristine-untou...

I hope you’re a patient person:

> Over thousands of years, native people played a strong role in molding the ecology of this vast wilderness

That’s the time scale it took place over, not the time scale it took to take place as I’m aware.

That said, native peoples have also played strong roles in maintaining the ecology of grasslands in e.g. the Great Plains through... fire.

But at the same time, those same natives who propagated breadfruit throughout the Amazon were also present as it transitioned from being partly savannah to full on rainforest again.

Life’s what you make of it I suppose.

You're part of the problem.

You too, champ.