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by xienze 27 days ago
It does when people start talking about a heatwave as being the "start of the end of human existence." It strongly implies that these trends will wipe out humanity in very short order. Perhaps even within the lifetimes of people in this thread.

What I find most amusing is people somehow think climate change will end humanity faster than what's _actually_ on track to do so, and quickly: people having children well below replacement levels.
2 comments
swiftcoder 27 days ago
> people having children well below replacement levels

You do realise that the global population is still increasing? While birthrates are falling, we aren't even predicted to hit the peak for another half-century. Even pessimistic estimates put it in the 2200s before we fall back to current population levels.

Which is ~100 years longer than current estimates give us before the effects of climate change starts taking a bite out of the world population

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intended 27 days ago
I too am curious as to why that is the feature they are concerned about.

As I recall there was a UN survey that found financial security was the most common reason for adults across the globe to choose not having children.

Income levels are highly dependent on the degree of stability and monthly expenses that households can expect.

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swiftcoder 27 days ago
It's probably also worth mentioning that nobody predicts birthrates to fall indefinitely - the human race isn't just going to die out because multi-child families are less common. Instead we expect that as affluence becomes more evenly distributed, the whole thing will stabilise at a lower population (and ideally one that leads to less competition for natural resources)

Outside of "great replacement" types who are worried about the continued supply of purebred aryans, I'm not really sure why anyone would be concerned by this

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intended 27 days ago
> Outside of "great replacement" types.

That is what stood out to me as well, but I could be doing them a disservice.

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inigyou 27 days ago
Both are temporary. Hopefully the reduction in population leads to a more sustainable humanity that changes the climate less.

BTW both of these have been predicted since the 80s.

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