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by isomel 1572 days ago
> Global warming continues to be a civilization-ending level threat,

Global warming is a threat that will have tons of negative impact. But is it really "civilization-ending"?

4 comments

Potentially, yes.

There are the typical threats (which assume society remains more or less stable) such as ecosystem collapse leading to food shortages etc.

Then the non-typical threats. It is hard to predict what an unstable society will do, and some of those choices could be civilization ending.

We've built an extremely fragile massively interdependent system. It is conceivable that the US power grid could go down, and due to supply chain issues could not be restored in < 5 years. Unlikely, yes, impossible, hardly.

Is that enough to end civilization? How would we distribute food, assuming we have it?

Note that a reactor meltdown isn't "civilization-ending" either. The world carried on fine after two of those.
Yes, of course, if we take a look to the history and cities marooned after a several years dry spell lead to war and migration.

Plenty of cases of lost civilizations in America, Asia and Africa linked with desertification and climate going unstable

No, the positive impacts will most likely outweigh the negative impacts.