[not_jd_salinger]

We're currently undergoing the largest mass extinction event that will easily rank in the top 6 of life on this planet and could possibly compete with the end-permian. What makes you think we could possibly survive? Because we're the cause? Plenty of species in the past that have caused extinction events also perished.

It seems far more questionable to assume we won't risk extinction in the geological near term. The parent is downvoted more out of existential fear rather than an honest assessment of the situation.

[delecti]

I think the parent comment was downvoted because it's not really contributing anything besides pessimism.

As for us, I don't doubt the likelihood of a serious mass extinction, including possibly a severe drop in human population, but I can't see it being so severe as to cause an existential threat to us. No other species on this planet has had the ability to change the environment to suit it, or the ease of mobility to move where they can survive. Short of earth being entirely incompatible with complex life on the surface, I don't see humanity disappearing because of climate change.

[hashkb]

We need the pessimism. Irrational exuberance clearly doesn't work.

[delecti]

I have never seen anything remotely resembling exuberance around climate change. Everything I've seen is either pessimism or denial.

[hashkb]

I'm talking about much more than climate change. Failure to cooperate, anti-intellectualism, and innate hatred of each other (among other flaws) are what will sink us.