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Comment by exergy | Hacker News Reader

What a clueless comment.

It's a tragedy for reasons MUCH beyond 'unnecessarily lost wealth'. I know you are trying to argue in good faith, but you're flat out wrong in the sense that doomsday despair is EXACTLY what we should all be feeling.

A world depleted of its glaciers, lacking in drinkable water, lacking in animal diversity, lacking in arable land, lacking in coral reefs, coastal cities with all their rich history and culture buried underwater and on, and on, is EXACTLY a hellish nightmare.

Who'd want to live on such a planet? Who'd give a fuck about 290% richer?

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> A world depleted of its glaciers, lacking in drinkable water, lacking in animal diversity, lacking in arable land, lacking in coral reefs, coastal cities with all their rich history and culture buried underwater and on, and on, is EXACTLY a hellish nightmare.

None of these will be true though?

We're getting close to the point of no return when it comes to losing all of the ice. That melting process may take 1000 years, but becomes inevitable once there is sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere.

https://www.businessinsider.com/greenland-approaching-thresh...

https://www.carbonbrief.org/scientists-identify-melting-thre...

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26102017/antarctica-sea-l...

I couldn't find a source for "all the glaciers will melt" but it's a pretty safe bet that if Greenland ice is gone in 1000 years, then so are pretty much all worldwide (mountain) glaciers, and the ice caps.

Yes and not only that but the fact that the glaciers are going to melt over 1000 years is actually worse than if it happened in a single event- instead of a single trauma you have a 1 foot per decade rise, decade after decade, century after century.

i hope you're right, but available evidence points the other way: * glaciers are melting at unprecedented rate, even glaciers previously thought safe like the ones in Antarctica * as a result, drinking water is running low in many densely-populated places; even groundwater is being exhausted * we're in the middle of a mass extinction * coral reefs are under threat, and higher ocean acidity may destroy the ability of new corals to form in the future

not sure about arable land and coastal cities underwater (certainly some will be), but even without those it's looking dire.

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