[zoeysmithe]

Wealthy westerners thinking climate change will only affect the global south are in for some hard lessons soon. "It can't happen here, it'll affect mostly the poors in the tropics, so we won't constraint capitalism at all for it or change our lifestyles," crowd think they're going to somehow outrun climate change. They don't realize as a group entirely dependent on exploiting the global south not only are they are risk if the gs is hurt, but their own climate is suffering now. If anything the northern West is more vulnerable to climate change than most due to it existing on a series of rube-goldberg machines in a long line of dominoes that, if hit in the right place, could cause systematic failure.

Olive trees are low stakes, but ultimately a sign that climate change is moving north.

[RandomLensman]

You'd be surprised how self-contained the West could be if it chooses to.

[RajT88]

I'd be surprised if it ever chose to be.

Being self-contained is something the West is incredibly bad at, and has been for (checks calendar) at least half a millennium. Depending on how much you think counts.

[RandomLensman]

Pretty self-contained for a lot of things, actually.

[selimthegrim]

How’s that working out for Russia so far?

[RajT88]

The West keeps their derision for other people pretty local, to be fair.

[morkalork]

So far nobody seems to be willing to give up luxuries like fresh fruit and vegetables in winter though.

[elcritch]

Nah the west could (will?) just grow them in vertical farms. Less pesticides, more water efficient, and fresher fruits and veggies: https://richmond.com/news/local/business/plenty-unlimited-ve...

[RoyalHenOil]

Vertical farms are fundamentally less efficient than traditional greenhouses or open fields.

The main limiting factor for crop productivity is sunlight, and vertical farms drastically reduce the sunlight-to-plant ratio. They are only productive if substantial artificial light is provided, but this is very expensive. This is why vertical farms are generally limited to locations where land values are very high (such that it is more economical to artificially light crops than to simply grow on a larger plot of land) and there is substantial government investnebt to growing food locally, even though it is much more expensive than importing food. For example, we see veryical farms in Singapore because it is striving to be more self-sufficient for defense reasons in the event of war.

It is no solution for most countries, particularly countries that have rural regions suited to agriculture.

[morkalork]

Let me know when they've figured out bananas, grapes and avocados. If/when the global south is crushed by climate change, we'll be back to eating what our great great grandparents were eating in winter. I hope you like potatoes!

[esafak]

We won't because we can develop new cultivars more easily now. But even if you were right it would not be the end of the world.

[bobsmooth]

It really is insane that the produce section of a grocery store basically never changes year-round.

[soulofmischief]

> "It can't happen here, it'll affect mostly the poors in the tropics, so we won't constraint capitalism at all for it or change our lifestyles," crowd

So, neoliberals and those who keep them in power.

https://chomsky.info/profit01/