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by cardamomo 2345 days ago
Of course people will adapt, but there is also a cultural loss here.
4 comments

The cultural loss of not building a space station on every hill ..
I don't think there's much culture lost in moving a few ski lifts to a higher altitude place.
Out here in the East, the ski hills are often already in the highest altitude spots for hundreds of miles around.
Ostentatious, wasteful winter sports are easily the least of my worries here.
Sure, I get that. But my bigger point isn't so much about Alpine skiing. To say simply that people will adapt to new climates belies the loss that people experience with the destruction of their home landscapes and ecosystems. In understanding this, I find the concept of solastalgia to be useful.

From Wikipedia: "Solastalgia (/ˌsɒləˈstældʒə/) is a neologism that describes a form of mental or existential distress caused by environmental change. In many cases this is in reference to global climate change, but more localized events such as volcanic eruptions, drought or destructive mining techniques can cause solastalgia as well."

There is also an arrogance that the past 120 years represents how geological earth should have remained forever.
Forever? Nah, but I’d prefer if things changed at the usual pace - slow enough for species to adapt and evolve without catastrophic extinctions.
> Nah, but I’d prefer if things changed at the usual pace - slow enough for species to adapt and evolve without catastrophic extinctions.

Why do you think that evolution happens like that? Extinction events are a major driver in evolution, and as far as I know, Punctuated Equilibrium Theory still has quite a bit of traction; many models (especially simulations) seem to show that this is what quite often happens.

Well, it doesn’t always, but I’d prefer not to live during the equivalent of a self imposed asteroid impact kthxbye.

Like, sure, mass extinctions happen... but this one is totally optional.

I don't think having to find a new ski resort is catastrophic. People have only been going to ski resorts for 100 years
>I don't think having to find a new ski resort is catastrophic.

As if the worst thing is the loss of ski resorts?

How about going finding a new place to live, cultivate, and the huge casualties in human life, animals, etc?

Ironically skiresorts aren't a haven of biodiversity
“I’m really bummed about the way it makes my arm look” said the stage 4 terminal skin cancer patient.

Hint: it’s not actually about the skiing.

Who the F cares how earth should look geologically. I want earth to stay habitable for humans. If earth wants to boil in greenhouses natural we should do everything possible to stop this natural process.
I think it's simple. Some people don't have climate change problems affect them and lack human empathy.

For them the problem is something they read about - not something real.

If they lived in one of the directly affected areas from climate change, and suffered the consequences, they'd change the tune regarding "why expect earth to look like this geologically", etc.

The current benchmark for climate change problems is "were things different 10-15 years ago".

Yea, things have always changed. It's why weather stable regions are historically more habitable than those which aren't.

>The current benchmark for climate change problems is "were things different 10-15 years ago".

Only if one has their head in the sand. Historically higher temperatures year after year, massive loss of arctic ice, etc.

All of those things weren't "always changing", except if you go back to thousands to millions of years. And even then, they didn't get there with the same rate of change we have now.

Yes exactly, all evidence point to some alarming patterns. The hottest year in recorded history, was it 7/10 were in the last 10 year.

Climate changes over hundred thousands years.

The rapid industrialization caused rapid heating in hundred years! This is a fact and trying to dispute it is akin to sticking you head in sand.

Anyhow the whole line of its natural so we should ignore it is crazy to me. Cancer is natural and yet people treat it. It doesn't matter if global warming is, or isn't natural, or its a mix. We need to stabilize it to suit us before we go back to having total population counted in millions or so.

Because it was very different in the past 2000 years?