There will never be a point where "Oh shit, everything has exploded!". Instead, it will be every year that deserts will get bigger, it will rain a little less, and a few more extreme weather events happen.
This will happen just a little bit more year by year.
There won't really be a point where you can say "This was the year climate change became really bad!" instead it will take looking at the current state and comparing it to the year 2000 or 1980 or whatever. And by that time, you've got a full generation that does not remember what those years were like.
That's the thing that scares me the most about climate change. It won't be something that will hurt all at once, instead it will just be a steady increase of bad events. And by the time it becomes unworkable, it's too late.
I'll add the ongoing extinction crisis that is picking up steam, itself a knock-on effect of us gobbling up all land resources and also climate change, and pollutants. I remember days in the park in the 1980s where the air would be filled with bees and insects of all kinds. The insects are so few and far between. Like, I don't even see moths swarming around streetlights anymore. It's eerie.
When I was born, my hometown would regularly see around 10ft of snow (I've seen the videos).
During my childhood, that reduced down to around 2->5 ft of snow.
Now, my home town is lucky to see 2->3 inches of snow.
This drought has caused major issues for a town that was built around farming. It's driven them to pull more water from the aquifer which itself has been in pretty rapid decline. Everyone just keeps drilling deeper and deeper pumps (30ft used to be enough, now 100+ft is what people are drilling).
These sorts of slow moving collapses are terrifying to watch. And, at the same time, infuriating to hear the deniers throughout my life claim it's a hoax/not real.
Never say never
The Clathrate gun hypothesis pretty much about this where inside one human generation the temperatures can rise beyond any expactations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis
See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_methane_emissions
“We are probably already dead”
Facing existential suicide is something us Cold War kids remember
It does make a difference to go through the grieving process, denial is a part of it, because it takes radical commitments to break the cycle.
We’re not even close to a radical commitment yet.
We can’t even turn off Russian oil globally, much less fossil fuels as a whole.
But climatetech is (finally) established as a legitimate space.
Now we need govtech to change how we make political decisions.
Because climate change is a symptom of how our political systems work - reactionary & summative instead of proactive & iterative.
Do something that costs you, and you have better credibility. Here's my litmus test: commit to never flying anywhere ever again.
Environmental concerns didn't factor into my choice at all - far more important to me is the thrill of silent, uninterrupted acceleration and not spending time at gas stations.
I don't want to be that guy, but driving an EV (unless you drive some sort of electric bicycle or scooter) is not that environmentally friendly as the manufacturers and marketing people want you to believe. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_impact_on_the_environmen...
Prolonging life and reducing negative health impacts are another bonus.
Yes, there is still an environmental cost of the production of EVs but these vehicles don’t emit CO2 or greenhouse gases and so their lifetime carbon footprint is much lower.
For example, a recent Reuters study found that a Tesla Model 3 would need to be driven for 13,500 miles (21,725 km) before it does less harm to the environment than a Toyota Corolla:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/lifeti...
I compost, watch what I buy and also own an EV. But as someone who went to engineering school I fully acknowledge that my actions basically don't even move the needle. There will always be people with less education or simply less means than me that quite frankly just have bigger issues. I think the big mistake alarmists make is blaming consumers and not huge companies like Exxon.
Even among my educated friends, it's clear that people acknowledge climate change but the ever increasing alarmism of "the world will end in 46 months" is flat out not helping. I barely got through 15 minutes of "Don't Look Up" which was clearly a bizarre politically charged hit-piece.
In the meantime I'll keep working with my local town's redwood conservancy and continue growing redwood saplings in my rural greenhouse :)
I think there’s a whole generation out there that never read “the boy who cried wolf”.