In the last post I mentioned the person who thought that sea level could rise 20 feet this century. I have now heard from someone else who is convinced that climate change is immediately and radically worrisome. Her predictions:
2020: bad weather for homo sapiens. Less food production. hunger. spread of tropical diseases to previously temperate areas.
2050: the major die off of humans will have happened, and things will be stabilizing.
2100: I don’t know. I don’t think that the ocean currents will re-reverse, so probably limited areas of habitation. I don’t know if the weather will stay crazy.
Finally, someone who can take my class and feel more optimistic afterwards.
On and off I hear from people convinced that the Gulf Stream will shut off within the decade and that cold weather for much of Europe is imminent.
Barbara, who sent in this last set of predictions, has never worried that nuclear war is imminent or about peak oil. Some of those I hear from have more free floating anxiety, though they aren’t the people who got excited that Cassini might crash and kill most humans.
In addition to the lack of concern many express, I also have been hearing predictions of massive imminent death. I’ve been ignoring these predictions, but am now thinking that anxiety and denial are mixed together in our culture, a noxious combination.
