OdinHades said: About benefits from climate change: Could be, we don't know. But the science points to a different direction. A very real danger is the extinction of the gulf stream. If that sucker stops to work, europe will freeze to death. Imagine the whole european population fleeing to somewhere else in the world. For the climate to get warm enough there without the gulf stream, we would have to wait for global warming for some more centuries. By that time, living in other parts of the world would be impossible, because it's simply too hot. Of course we don't know exactly what will happen. But we do know that our planet in its current state is a pretty damn good place for human creatures. So I say let's keep it that way for as long as possible and don't rely on things that could or could not happen. This is the only planet we have, we shouldn't fuck it up. We really really shouldn't. |
Zero chance it happens. Europe is warmer than similar latitudes on the other side of the Atlantic and Siberia mainly because of the Westerlies, which depend on Earth's rotation. The Pacific coast is similarly warm, albeit restricted to a much smaller area because of the Rockies.
The last time the Gulf Stream was possibly disrupted was during the Younger Dryas event some 12,000 years ago, and it meant tundra spreading over the post-glacial, recolonizing mosaic of taiga on Scandinavia, not everything north of the Mediterranean "freezing to death".
Either way, our planet is colder than optimum. We have huge dead zones on tropical and polar deserts (after all ice caps are almost entirely devoid of life). The last time Earth was warmer, most deserts were gone, and so was the arctic ice cap on summer. Polar bears obviously survived, same as coral reefs, and just about everything else really. Of course the speed of increase might be an issue, though we just don't know yet how.
http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html -> just check the historical records. Anytime Earth was colder, such as in glacial ages, it basically did a cosplay of Mars. Warmer periods were overall wetter and richer on biomass. Not defending that you should drive your SUVs and drown the planet, but hey, issues like these simply aren't clear cut. But it'simpossible to have a decent picture of net result of warming, or not, and accurately gauge the benefits and downsides... at least until we get there.