Arguments for devastation typically ignore adaptation, which will reduce vulnerability dramatically.
I think this is an important crux, and one that I believe. Most argument about climate change seem to assume it will just happen to us without any response other than to try to keep things exactly how they are in the face of changing weather. But obviously that’s not what will happen because it never happens except in isolated pockets. In general, people find ways to adapt to their circumstances.
For what it’s worth, the other crux I have in not worrying too much about climate change is that even the worst realistic forecasts don’t make Earth’s climate move outside its historical distribution. Humans have lived during one of Earth’s colder period, but historically it’s been a lot hotter. Our bodies are well adapted for heat (so long as we can cool off using sweat) and cold (so long as there’s a source of fuel for fire and material to make clothes from), so it would take climate shifts beyond what’s typically predicted to get outside the range of what humans seem able to adapt to.
I don’t know Lomborg is right about other claims, although given the above I don’t think it matters much.
Humans have lived during one of Earth’s colder period, but historically it’s been a lot hotter. Our bodies are well adapted for heat (so long as we can cool off using sweat)
Since 2005, wet-bulb temperature values above 95 degrees Fahrenheit [35 C] have occurred for short periods of time on nine separate occasions in a few subtropical places like Pakistan and the Persian Gulf. They also appear to be becoming more frequent.
If it’s been hotter historically, such that dinosaurs would have been totally fine with these higher temperatures that doesn’t exactly help humans...
I think this is an important crux, and one that I believe. Most argument about climate change seem to assume it will just happen to us without any response other than to try to keep things exactly how they are in the face of changing weather. But obviously that’s not what will happen because it never happens except in isolated pockets. In general, people find ways to adapt to their circumstances.
For what it’s worth, the other crux I have in not worrying too much about climate change is that even the worst realistic forecasts don’t make Earth’s climate move outside its historical distribution. Humans have lived during one of Earth’s colder period, but historically it’s been a lot hotter. Our bodies are well adapted for heat (so long as we can cool off using sweat) and cold (so long as there’s a source of fuel for fire and material to make clothes from), so it would take climate shifts beyond what’s typically predicted to get outside the range of what humans seem able to adapt to.
I don’t know Lomborg is right about other claims, although given the above I don’t think it matters much.
This doesn’t seem very reassuring? For example, https://climate.nasa.gov/explore/ask-nasa-climate/3151/too-hot-to-handle-how-climate-change-may-make-some-places-too-hot-to-live/
If it’s been hotter historically, such that dinosaurs would have been totally fine with these higher temperatures that doesn’t exactly help humans...
Currently lots of the Earth is too cold to live in. In a warmer Earth those places would become habitable even as other places became too hot.