on the other hand our planet has seen 5 mass extinction events.

at the same time, 56 millions years ago the planet was extremely hot: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/whats-hotte...

and, to top it off, all we're doing is prolonging the inevitable warming of the planet.

things aren't so clear as that documentary makes it unfortunately.

There were no humans 56 millions years ago. I'd like the planet to remain in a state that is good for humans for at least a few more millennia.

“a few more millennia” is basically nothing in terms of the planet’s history.

The entirety of human civilization is basically nothing in terms of the planet's history. That doesn't make it less important to me though.

to me it’s an important aspect. try as we might, we’ll still be subject to planetary forces outside of our control.

the planet is warming. we can delay it for a bit, but the planet will continue to warm no matter what we do.

of course we should manage our impact on the planet. but this will represent just a small delay in the grand scheme of things. a few generations, maybe even a few thousand years as you’ve put it.

but a multi generational effort to tackle either moving to a different planet or something like living underground will be needed.

unfortunately our extremely limited existence will make these efforts extremely hard to tackle.

What has this got to do with anything?

The planet used to be hotter, agreed. But the species alive then were completely different, adapted to living in those conditions. The species alive now (including us!) can thrive in current climatic conditions. A drastic change in a short span of time will lead to a mass extinction.

Unless you think a mass extinction event is ok because it happened millions of years before humans existed? It happened to the dinosaurs so it's no big deal if it happens to most living creatures alive today?

> things aren't so clear as that documentary makes it unfortunately.

I’ve been wondering lately what happened to the documentary genre. When was the turning point where they started becoming political in nature, driving an ideology based off FUD and pseudo-science? Or have they always been this way and I’m just realizing it now?

I suppose the turning point was when we stopped living in a shared reality where scientific consensus was worth something.

I grew up with “documentaries” about aliens and ghosts, so I think the problem has been here for ages.

It's really odd to me. 200 years ago, the population was about one billion. Now it approaches eight billion. If the trend really is lower over the next 100 years and it drops... don't we think it would eventually reverse again? Why do we want the population to be stable or always growing? Why would it be bad for it to be going down for a while?

Because our economy is somewhat of a Ponzi scheme, in which everything needs to keep growing forever. We are perpetually borrowing from the future, with the assumption that everything will be growing forever.

As people get older, they start getting more expensive. If you don't have a larger generation coming from behind to provide for that ever-increasing older generation, then the costs have to be spread among fewer people.

Many parts of our economy assume perpetual growth. The easiest way to ensure growth is to increase the number of humans. Look at countries with shrinking birth rates for a glimpse of the problems an aging population can cause.

Perpetual growth based on an ever-increasing population is a recipe for eventual disaster.

The earth's resources are not infinite. We may not be able to say precisely what its carrying capacity for humans is (and the answer would depend to some extent on the conditions in which the humans are prepared to live), but I am entirely confident that there is a limit.

It definitely is, and believing anything else is delusional.

With that said, would you like to be the politician to stop the madness, if that's even possible? Things will not change until we have a crisis.

It would not reverse if woman have universal access to contraceptives and are empowered and educated. It’s a one way ratchet.

https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#what-explains-the-...

That's an assumption though, based on the current conditions and population. You can't extrapolate that same assumption to a future modernized world that has returned to one or two billion humans. Perhaps in that world, women happily choose to have more children than they are having now, for a variety of unforeseen reasons. Perhaps the world is just so great for everyone that women choose to bring additional children into the world, knowing just how much joy that children will experience. Perhaps children become a new popular hobby or some entertainment scheme we would find abhorrent in today's world.

I don't believe there's anyway to know today that it's a one way ratchet forever.