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The truth is that "western" countries will be "fine". They have the money to build walls(for the rising sea and immigrants), cool and heat all the houses, buy/grow food, infinite energy. The cost of living will increase, the quality of life might decrease but nothing directly societal threatening.
Climate change will mostly affect poorer countries, that are already struggling to survive. Those countries cant really afford to do anything. And people in those countries will have to decide between dying or migrating. So the only "issue" for the "West" is the mass migration that will be caused by climate change.
Emmm...no? Climate change doesn't mean only the rising sea level and heat, it also mean extreme weather pattern, which include but not limited to cat6 or even worst hurricane, extremely heavy rain, stronger blizzard, and the expanding cold snap, all of which can directly hit all western country.
They can affect a western country but these are not societal threatening issues, not in the same way climate change is for poorer countries.
Every country in the world is going to be affected by climate change. Extreme weather causing growing seasons to change or destroying entire crops will be a common occurrence. Where do you think “the west” will be buying food from if no one can produce it?
You guys are both right. He is downplaying the affect of climate change. It's not just going to be "some reduction in the standard of living". You are wrong in thinking there will be no food.
Some crops may not be available year-round, for any price. Right now you can get tropical fruit any month in colder climates. This may go away for many months of the year. Maybe shipping is disrupted by larger storms, so goods take longer to arrive.
Basically it may be like during the pandemic when transportation shut down, and you couldn't get some goods at any price. That's more than a "reduction in standard of living".
I don’t think “the West” will get off so easily once temperatures in Europe drop by several degrees due to the collapsing Gulf stream.
Europe will be like Canada. Even a wild Canada climate isnt that big of an issue. Worst case scenario, we can build giant glass domes, like in scifi.
The West has options and "solutions". Most countries dont.
Call me apathetic, but since I literally can't do anything but vote (and even that seems pointless). The only thing left to keep me sane is think "at least I live in a rich country". I'm not proud of it, but there's a great chance that me and mine will suffer drastically less than poorer folks and that's sort of reassuring.
The US is indeed in a very good position, having only two borders and two oceans between everyone else. They just need to get Mexico to mine their southern border, while they mine theirs.
But Europe, Russia, China, India have plenty of them and won't be able to escape refuge streams or conflicts. Large parts of India might become uninhabitable. Food prices are going to fluctuate. Global trade will become unstable or collapse, disabling the complex globalized industrial economy. Nuclear war is very likely. People still don't know what's coming.