[naiveprogrammer]

But we need to strike a balance here. I agree with the person above that putting big numbers as to exaggerate and drive panic is not really a prudent approach. At the end of the day, it hurts more than helps for a very simple reason: people remember. If you sell a doomsday scenario and nothing happens, people will start to dismiss your claims, like the boy who cried wolf. I recall 20 years ago seeing articles claiming that "Snow will be a thing of the past" or "Arctic to be ice-free by 2020". Nothing happened. Now we hear that we are facing mass extinction in a few decades. People get anxious and nervous when they see that, but then when nothing happens they will start to discount heavily your claims.

[nolok]

> if you sell a doomsday scenario and nothing happens, people will start to dismiss your claims

You are massively missing the point: what is happening in Australia the past few weeks / months, the 4-50°C temperature, the gigantic fires, ... Are not warning signs or a possible doomsday scenario people are trying to sell.

It is the doomsday scenario actually happening in its early phase. It's too late to avoid it, it's happening, now the best we can do is slow it down and try to reverse course.

> I recall 20 years ago seeing articles claiming that "Snow will be a thing of the past" or "Arctic to be ice-free by 2020". Nothing happened.

Of course, if by nothing happened you mean it is actually happening faster than even predicted and the ice coverage is thinning so fast you can see it on year-on-year comparisons.

[frogger23125]

> It is the doomsday scenario actually happening in its early phase. It's too late to avoid it, it's happening, now the best we can do is slow it down and try to reverse course.

You are reinforcing his point by making these silly exaggerated claims of doomsday scenarios. Nearly 50 years ago, the 1974-1975 bush fires burnt 95 million hectares, which is an order of magnitude bigger than the 10.7 million burnt so far in 2019-2020. Epic bush fires have been regularly occurring in Australia for a very long time, well before the industrial revolution.

Also note that some of these fires were started by arsonists, which is obviously not climate related.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/07/australia/australia-fires....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushfires_in_Australia

[backupcavalry]

I'm starting to think people will refuse to understand just how deep in the proverbial mud we're already in until we're all actively on fire, given comments like these.

Which world do you live in has regular occurrences of fires so big they turn the skies orange in an adjacent country?