UpFront – Climate change: Are we all doomed?

This month, the United States released an exhaustive scientific report on climate change, citing humans as the dominant cause of global warming.

So, should we still be optimistic about humans’ ability to combat climate change? And should we be worried about the possible doomsday scenarios that have been presented in the media? Or are these scenarios counter-productive?

David Wallace-Wells, the author of a controversial article titled The Uninhabitable Earth, which paints a pessimistic doomsday scenario for planet Earth, believes people are not as worried as they should be about the grave consequences of climate change:

“I think when you look at the public as a whole, it’s just very, very clear to me, and honestly, I don’t see a counter argument, that the public is not alarmed enough about what is possible and not motivated enough by that alarm to take political action,” says Wallace-Wells, who is also a deputy editor at New York Magazine.

For Andrew Freedman, senior science editor at Mashable, we need a more level approach:

“Is climate change fatalism a bigger problem than climate complacency?” asks Freedman, who is also a former science writer at Climate Central. “I think they’re both big problems. Neither one of them is necessarily a solution. I would prefer, like, climate change realism here.”

In this week’s Arena, David Wallace-Wells and Andrew Freedman debate how to cover climate change in a way that motivates the public to action.

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20 thoughts on “UpFront – Climate change: Are we all doomed?”

  1. Ever notice how the pro 'Climate Change" scientists get grant money while the sceptics get none. Somebody explain how there is more ice now in the Antartic and Arctic. Why is Hudson Bay recording record ice? Why is Greenland called Greenland? Look at the history of Greenland and the Vikings. "Roman Warm Period." 'Medieval Warm Period."Nobody mentions the Sun the greatest driver of earths climate. Grand Solar Minimum happening now. Look up Roy Spencer ex NASA and Don Easterbrook in front of US Congress on Youtube. Also enter "Climate Change Hoax." What is the starvation level of CO2, what is the current level, what is the optimum level for plant growth.

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  2. How about carbon taxing people who choose to have children? Researchers from Lund University in Sweden found having one fewer child per family can save “an average of 58.6 tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions per year”.

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  3. Yes, we are all doomed.   Runaway global warming is well underway and it will be abrupt, extreme, catastrophic, irreversible and unsurvivable.   Habitat for humans will disappear by 2030, because plants and animals will not be able to adapt to rapid global temperature rise which is locked in because of the drastic changes human pollution has made to atmospheric chemistry.   With dead oceans and all the land plants and animals dead,  humans will go extinct.    We broke it, we cant fix it, and we are doomed because of it.   Human extinction seems to be the only way to stop the runaway, omnicidal, toxic heat engine that is Capitalistic, oligarchic, kleptocratic, and utterly corrupt industrial civilization.

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  4. what difference do it make, we can just remove the co2 anyway. The technology for that is already out there, the biggest issue is the cost, and when the biggest issue is the cost, there is no issue really. The danger is over.

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  5. People talk about climate change being a threat to the world. No. People are that can either make the world a better or worse place.
    When wars are happening for resources I do not think the people affected are worried about climate change. How is the world helping the Amazon rain forest and indigenous tribes that inhabit them.. These people will eventually be made to conform one way or another.
    Norway is happy to make millions from its oil revenue with most of its own electric etc being green. Yet Norway is a big polluter but not in its own country.
    Electric cars are not green. Where is the lithium mining going on. It is not environmental.
    People make the earth uninhabitable by the actions of greed. Wars displaced the people.
    The data is not adding up about climate change. Scientists who support climate change do not have the data to back up human intervention.
    Al Gore has made millions of dollars for himself and buddies who make money from something that has not been proven by human interaction.

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  6. More dishonesty from Al Jazeera, ho hum, situation normal.

    The climate has always been changing you fascist turds. The question is not whether we are faced with climate change. It's whether we face catastrophic global warming caused by human CO2 emissions, and which policy can improve on at an acceptable cost.

    The results are now in. We're not.

    These are just parasites, simple as that.

    Take out of the equation the only one hundred percent correlation in the entire field – vested interests in the ideology of unlimited government power – and the entire theory evaporates.

    All you need to know is that Al Jazeera has NEVER put up an unbiased publication on this topic, ever. Zero credibility. End of story.

    However if what you're saying is true, then STOP CONSUMING FOSSIL FUELS YOU TURDS. Nothing to do with government.

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  7. DO NOT BELIEVE THE FALLACY OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Everyone involved in this lie is either a directly paid agent or a deceived victim. The hard facts exist and can be found by anyone….. human beings occupy LESS THAN 1% OF TOTAL LAND MASS and concentrated in cities. Underground water exists everywhere (Las Vegas exists in a desert). THIS IS AGENDA 21 propaganda for one world government, and promote the killing of populations to bring it down to 500,000,000 so the earth belongs to a small evil consortium. These evil people will be overthrown at the right time by God Almighty who created the entire earth and to whom the Earth belongs. These brazen scientists and their covert evil consortium deceiving the world will be handled by God. The current world govermental system is coming down within 20-30 years. No need to discuss 100 years from now because these scientists and their minions will not be in control and put where they truly belong. Anyone believing and supporting these lies of global warming / climate change / overpopulation etc etc will reap dire consequences. God created the earth to support billions more people than it currently has. These evil doers go round making every human being feel guilty for just being alive!!! If you are not with the One True Living God of the Holy Inerrant Bible, you're on the losing team and will be destroyed along with them.

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  8. Wallace-Wells' work in this piece has been dismissed by Michael Mann, who at the same time compliments his other work. It's alarmist and hyperbolic, which given the denial movements power and wealth (if not great in number of adherents) at best doesn't help, or more dangerously could "feed the beast". Believe me, we don't want that. As Mann puts it, things are bad enough as they are.

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  9. Climate change is real,but the reason is not the nations on earth,but the so called scientist exploring the ice…they put the blame in the nation to hide their guilt and continue exploring..imagine put hot object in freezer and close it…same effect are happening there,their machines and human temperatures traps in the shelters and temperature is rising causing ice melting…

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  10. Extreme weather has been around since the earth was first formed-4 billion years ago.But,the science says expect it's intensity and frequency to increase.

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