I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

As long as is needed to transition away from burning fossil fuels. You can always put more in high altitude. If half the comments here are right and climate change is truly an apocalyptic threat, then acid rain and global dimming would be worthwhile tradeoffs.

If climate change isn't extremely bad, then maybe it's not worth it. But at some point, if it becomes existential, then all options are on the table.

...until the dispossessed hordes burn it to the ground.

The belief that rich people will be able to ride this one out is a huge part of the problem. No matter how deep your bunker, no matter how many acres of land you own, extreme weather will make all of it worthless.

> Less charitably, this is the kind of advice that mostly seems like an excuse to preach at people.

No, I just picked it as a random example of something that you can do to reduce population growth. Widespread access to birth control in developing countries would be a better solution. Supposedly educating girls in developing countries also helps reduce population growth as well. And there are probably countless other things you can do.

They also have traditions in many developing countries to have very large families.

We need a phase transition in our thinking about climate change, because our current way of thinking is taking us nowhere.

- All human activities, in different degrees, contribute to climate change. Don't believe me? Say that you bike to the office everyday. You enjoy your commute, you never develop a heart condition, and in the course of your long prosperous life you have three kids and nine grandchildren, own several dogs and get a bigger house. In other words, your climate footprint all of the sudden is greater than if you had used a polluting car and died of a heart attack when you turned forty.

By definition, humanity thriving means humanity growing, and with that its footprint on the entire planet.

- But in the aggregate, humanity is what we are. There is a price to pay for climbing that hill, but there is an even greater price for not climbing it. Critters in the Serengeti don't compose poetry, nor make Youtube videos; they are too busy surviving. So are people in places where material scarcity reigns supreme. My father, who never wanted to leave his homeland, is dying at home, and my mother won't hire a nurse not for lack of money, but because she doesn't trust that young people will work for just the money and won't rob them blind.

We have the knowledge, the technology and the means to live in domes in the vast deserts of this planet, to go to the moon or to live in space habitats anywhere in the solar system.

You are right. Americans will be fine. We’ve got enough money to fortify cities from rising waters. Well maybe not some poor areas. But we’ve never cared about the poors, so they can suffer.

The border will be where the American crisis exists. Droughts will cause the poor and hungry to flee their homes. We’ll see a refugee crisis at the border that makes today look tiny.

Oh and refugee crisis’ that are left unsolved lead to criminal activities. So we are likely to see a resurgence of ISIS. If we are really unlucky we’ll see a few strong men take over power in these countries. Combine both and we’ll have regional conflicts. Maybe some of those will bleed over to terrorism in the US.

But yeh, you are right for Americans it isn’t an existential crisis. For millions of others however it will be.