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> We can outsmart, and have repeatedly outsmarted, all sorts of potential disasters.

While this is my general take on these kinds of things as well, it's good to keep in mind that it takes just one outlier disaster to never be able to outsmart anything ever again, and perhaps it's just dumb luck that we're in a timeline where that didn't happen so far.

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Yeah I don't see how we could outsmart a volcanic winter. I mean I'm sure we can grow some food under artificial sunlight, but nowhere near enough to ensure the survival of everyone.

At least, most of the volcanic winters they record on Wikipedia seem to have just reduced crop productivity by some amount. It isn't like a "blot out the sun like in The Matrix" type situation. We might be able to make up the gap just by increasing efficiency in our distribution.

Apparently the volcanic winter of 536 lowered global temperatures by around 2.5C, which puts global warming in a worrying light, though.

> Apparently the volcanic winter of 536 lowered global temperatures by around 2.5C, which puts global warming in a worrying light, though.

It's not obvious to me so I'll ask: why does the volcanic winter of 536 lowering global temps by 2.5C put global warming in a worrying light?

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