[willcipriano]

> But wasn't that always the case?

Nope and it isn't the case now. End of the world cults are a common feature of human societies, pretty much all of them have/had them. My personal guess is that egos are so big that people can't imagine a world after them so it's easier to say the world is going to end.

[flangola7]

Yes but climate disaster isn't a cult. There's the crazy guy who thinks Zeus is going to strike us all down and then there's the oceanographer out there with actual thermometers and log books saying hey this water is getting really damn warm.

Will be the end of life on earth? Not at all. Will it be the total extinction of humans? Probably not. Will it be far more war, starvation, death, and human suffering than we have collectively ever witnessed? Yes.

[hattmall]

There is absolute nothing to suggest catastrophic or even rapid climate change. Yes we can detect human activity that is changing the planet and will have impacts on the climate. Preaching that it will result in any more suffering than the current or a previous state of the world is completely faith based without evidence.

[acdha]

Every credible scientist who studies this says the opposite, that climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of events impacting millions of people. Yes, things like natural disasters, famines, or wars caused by resource competition aren’t new but we’ve been seeing them intensified for at least a decade and there’s no reason to believe that trend will reverse.

[willcipriano]

Saying humanity will be extinct in X years is completely unsupported by even the most dramatic predictions. If you believe it, you are on equal footing with the people waiting for the four horseman to show up. Teaching that to children will probably be seen as child abuse by the children who are being taught it today.

[flangola7]

Did you even read my comment?

[WarOnPrivacy]

> End of the world cults are a common feature of human societies,

The different tech that can make good on the apocalypse are a relatively recent addition to the equation.

We've had the ability to lay waste to the planet for just a handful of generations.

[willcipriano]

Another feature of human end of the world predictions is its always different this time.

[WarOnPrivacy]

Okay. So make the equation equate. How could humanity make most of the planet uninhabitable 1000 years ago?

[willcipriano]

Lots of reasons, by having sex or praying the wrong way were common. The wrong way being the way some other out group does it. Now we can end the world by doing things like driving the wrong kind of car (but not by flying around the world to "broaden the mind" as in group members like to do that). You can even buy indulgences.

[WarOnPrivacy]

None of those things are responsive to the question: What existed 1000 years ago that humanity could use to make the planet uninhabitable?

If you don't have an answer to the actual question at hand, it's okay to say so.

[willcipriano]

Human kind is not able to exterminate itself full stop. It couldn't then, it can't now.