It is the year 2025 and world=fucked but not because of your obvious guess - The Something Awful Forums

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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > It is the year 2025 and world=fucked but not because of your obvious guess

Zeris: Apr 15, 2003; Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.

A very cool post in the NYC LAN thread made me wonder how many IRR callups will occur in the next 5-10 years when it's time to safeguard "vital" resources across the globe because it's suddenly clear that, well, there aren't any.

Effortpost by cool goon:

Ol Standard Retard posted:

It's the NYC thread so I won't go through my whole eco diatribe but there's all sorts of bad poo poo that's already starting to happen. As a caveat my degree was focused on agricultural ecology and soil health, particularly where the planet's support of agriculture intersects with human health.

The vast majority of people think of climate change (well, those who give it credence, we can leave deniers out of the conversation entirely) and think Weird Weather and Oh Lol Summertime In March. These are surface level first order effects and in the NYC area these will manifest primarily as increasing frequency of extreme weather events, like the God drat Thunderstorm that blew through last night in February.

On the near window I'm expecting to see increased local transit disruption (lol you think the trains are bad now!), strains on sanitation and municipal water and power infrastructure both via demand and cyclical disruption, and eventually the direct effect of warming globally, sea level rise putting parts of the city underwater. Incredibly hot summers will be more frequent and given the capacity of the cityscape to retain heat, these will be more unrelenting and difficult to adapt to. If you've ever been in Dallas or Houston for a 110 degree day in August, you know what I'm talking about. It never cools down.

However the second order effects of these phenomena becoming more frequent across the planet are going to be what really impacts human health and society. Our extremely precarious just-in-time food distribution system is going to be fundamentally threatened, if not to the point of utter collapse (knock wood) then definitely to a point of devastating economic consequences across the industry of Getting People Calories.

In terms of a 5-10 year window to me this points to increasingly frequent shortages and price spikes of either specific foods (this already happened with limes and eggs for example in recent years), or broad ecological-niche shortages as a biome-specific resource is wiped out. Coffee and chocolate are two extremely ecosystem-sensitive crops that spring to mind immediately. People making noise about almonds being grown in the desert will seem like a fart in the wind if prices for coffee quintuple due to a novel pest migrating into growing regions.

And remember, the triggers for these crises are not restricted to specifically weather events. Like yeah a bad drought or an early freeze could devastate a certain crop region somewhere. However it could be that an abnormally warm February causes a particular species of insect to emerge before its preferred food (I dunno say wheat) has had enough degree-days to develop its tiller tissue to be hardy enough to employ its natural defense against being gobbled up. I'm making the specific organisms up to illustrate a point but this hearkens to the Ft. McMurray wildfires last year. Those trees weren't kindling by coincidence, they'd been beetled to death.

The increased demand for staple crops and agricultural intensiveness will devastate soils in developing countries that do not have strong regulation to prevent such things, and on the human timescale, once that soil is gone, it is gone forever. Which creates a spiral of increasing demand placed on existing soil, which strips it, which creates increasing demand, etc.

The third-order impact that looms in my mind is the solutions that humans will resort to as we address these rolling crises. Direct chemical applications to crops are INCREDIBLY fossil fuel intensive both in their manufacture and their employ. The food distribution system will take on additional logistical burdens which will create similar fossil fuel demand. We will inevitably exacerbate climate change by trying to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Long story short is that it's a long story made short. Humans exist, live, and consume resources on a timetable some 2-3 orders of magnitude shorter than any non-fossil-fueled process is capable of replenishing them. It's why eventually so, so many geopolitical issues circle right on back to climate change. The manifestation of our relationship with the planet at large, in any capacity, comes down to fossil fueling away our problems, and putting that carbon back in the air.

loving on a Sunday y'all. At least it's seasonably cool again.

My prediction is that food shortage insanity and supply chain insecurity leads us to helpfully "protect" a neighboring country whose resources start looking more and more tempting to a "bad" country. We probably do it to keep resource parity with China, who shamelessly annexes countries left and right.

We never quite reach WWIII, but we do end up in a new cold war where small countries are forced to pick sides.

Europe is split, except for Scandinavia. Everyone hates everyone else. Income disparity of tomorrow makes today's look like a joke. Weird hologram media nostalgia for the 2000s and 2010s is super popular and trendy. Robots do a lot of boring jobs. Also judge dredd comes true.

# ? Feb 28, 2017 05:26

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# ? May 4, 2024 17:17

Mike-o: Dec 25, 2004; Now I'm in your room
And I'm in your bed; Grimey Drawer

Now I'm all depressed. Because I just try to ignore any talk like that because I know humanity is turbofucked and it just gets me down, really really down. Maybe I'd be better off killing myself. Unless aliens just swoop in and save us from ourselves we are just utterly hosed because the greed and stupidity and evilness of the rich and powerful, and the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. We loving industrialized and advanced way too quickly to understand what we were doing, and then when we figured it out it was too late because the selfish fucks in power were too busy huffing their own farts to even care when people started ringing alarm bells. gently caress this gay earth.

# ? Feb 28, 2017 11:31

pantslesswithwolves: Oct 28, 2008; Ba-dam ba-DUMMMMMM

Richer industrialized countries in the northern hemisphere will likely be able to mitigate the most life-threatening aspects of climate change, but that's not going to make it any more pleasant when we have a sudden heatwave in Manhattan that turns April into mid-August. It's countries that are on the periphery that are truly turbofucked and where conditions could deteriorate to the degree that they pose serious regional security problems- think Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the Gulf and parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

# ? Feb 28, 2017 19:53

CHICKEN SHOES: Oct 4, 2002; Slippery Tilde

Mike-o posted:

Now I'm all depressed. Because I just try to ignore any talk like that because I know humanity is turbofucked and it just gets me down, really really down. Maybe I'd be better off killing myself. Unless aliens just swoop in and save us from ourselves we are just utterly hosed because the greed and stupidity and evilness of the rich and powerful, and the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. We loving industrialized and advanced way too quickly to understand what we were doing, and then when we figured it out it was too late because the selfish fucks in power were too busy huffing their own farts to even care when people started ringing alarm bells. gently caress this gay earth.

You said it better than I could, :same:

:same:

# ? Feb 28, 2017 21:58

Zeris: Apr 15, 2003; Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.

fart

# ? Feb 28, 2017 22:28

Godholio: Aug 28, 2002; Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

I don't need to know how to grow food, I just need to have enough guns to influence the guy who does.

# ? Feb 28, 2017 23:49

vains: May 26, 2004; A Big Ten institution offering distance education catering to adult learners

Godholio posted:

I don't need to know how to grow food, I just need to have enough guns to influence the guy who does.

you can only shoot 1 gun at a time bro. might need to hone those social skills.

# ? Mar 1, 2017 00:02

Terrible Robot: Jul 2, 2010; FRIED CHICKEN; Slippery Tilde

Mike-o posted:

Now I'm all depressed. Because I just try to ignore any talk like that because I know humanity is turbofucked and it just gets me down, really really down. Maybe I'd be better off killing myself. Unless aliens just swoop in and save us from ourselves we are just utterly hosed because the greed and stupidity and evilness of the rich and powerful, and the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. We loving industrialized and advanced way too quickly to understand what we were doing, and then when we figured it out it was too late because the selfish fucks in power were too busy huffing their own farts to even care when people started ringing alarm bells. gently caress this gay earth.

This is exactly how I feel as well, with some more personal guilt tossed in because I loving love cars and things with engines and it's pretty much all I'm really good at doing.

# ? Mar 1, 2017 00:04

Beeb: Jun 29, 2003; Good hunter, free us from this waking nightmare

MassivelyBuckNegro posted:

you can only shoot 1 gun at a time bro. might need to hone those social skills.

:colbert:

_{Don't look at this ATF I don't even have a dog for you to kill}

# ? Mar 1, 2017 00:09

Godholio: Aug 28, 2002; Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

MassivelyBuckNegro posted:

you can only shoot 1 gun at a time bro. might need to hone those social skills.

me irl

# ? Mar 1, 2017 00:37

vains: May 26, 2004; A Big Ten institution offering distance education catering to adult learners

sick duster

# ? Mar 1, 2017 00:50

Jokers Gamble: May 31, 2013

MassivelyBuckNegro posted:

sick duster

It lets people know not to gently caress with him.

Just, not in the way he intended.

# ? Mar 1, 2017 01:28

Beeb: Jun 29, 2003; Good hunter, free us from this waking nightmare

Godholio posted:

me irl

Wick sure leveled up, all he needs is a single handgun nowadays.

# ? Mar 1, 2017 02:51

Zeris: Apr 15, 2003; Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.

Capn Beeb posted:

Wick sure leveled up, all he needs is a single handgun nowadays.

You realize John Wick is just a VR dream fantasy that Neo cooked up for himself, right?

# ? Mar 1, 2017 03:27

Beeb: Jun 29, 2003; Good hunter, free us from this waking nightmare

Zeris posted:

You realize John Wick is just a VR dream fantasy that Neo cooked up for himself, right?

He just wanted a dang dog

# ? Mar 1, 2017 03:28

UP THE BUM NO BABY: Sep 1, 2011; by Hand Knit

Zeris posted:

You realize John Wick is just a VR dream fantasy that Neo cooked up for himself, right?

:catstare:

I'm high right now and that's amazing to me. I wish it were true and that the filmmakers could make it the greatest reveal after Darth Vader being Luke's father.

# ? Mar 1, 2017 03:32

Mike-o: Dec 25, 2004; Now I'm in your room
And I'm in your bed; Grimey Drawer

I just realized there are no dogs in the matrix. Or at least in the real world and not inside the simulation. Dogs must've all died after the machine war along with every other living thing on earth besides man :smith:

:smith:

# ? Mar 1, 2017 03:37

Zeris: Apr 15, 2003; Quality posting direct from my brain to your face holes.

Mike-o posted:

I just realized there are no dogs in the matrix. Or at least in the real world and not inside the simulation. Dogs must've all died after the machine war along with every other living thing on earth besides man

# ? Mar 1, 2017 03:47

CHICKEN SHOES: Oct 4, 2002; Slippery Tilde

If I was in the matrix I"d be happy just knowing I could do anything and leave the bobots alone as long as I could fly around and bang whomever I wanted, whenever I wanted and do lots of computer drugs

edit quote circa me at 17, still true today

# ? Mar 1, 2017 04:16

CHICKEN SHOES: Oct 4, 2002; Slippery Tilde

also a matrix "whoa" for the thread tag :eyepop:

:eyepop:

# ? Mar 1, 2017 04:18

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# ? May 4, 2024 17:17

666: Jun 27, 2002; Carrion Fairy

Zeris posted:

Europe is split, except for Scandinavia. Everyone hates everyone else. Income disparity of tomorrow makes today's look like a joke. Weird hologram media nostalgia for the 2000s and 2010s is super popular and trendy. Robots do a lot of boring jobs. Also judge dredd comes true.

I can recommend "Climate wars" by Harald Welzer. Despite its clickbaity title it's actually a rather well thought out extrapolation on how climate change will bring about global instability to the point of, hey, fascism rises again. Who would've thought?

# ? Mar 1, 2017 08:15

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Internet VFW > It is the year 2025 and world=fucked but not because of your obvious guess

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