One or two degrees will not incinerate you, but it might affect some crops, and then some food prices, and then there could be some starving, and poverty, and disease. Things could escalate quickly.
There are large swaths of the world that are unlivable today without significant cooling. When summers with over 45 Celsius (fifties in some parts) are becoming more and more common poor people without access to air-conditioning are suffering. These areas are becoming larger and larger.
Just because us in the western temperate climates are fine, does not mean that the effects of climate change will not be felt somewhere in the world today or in the next decade.
Just think of the 10 year lynx-hare cycle https://jckantor.github.io/CBE30338/02.05-Hare-and-Lynx-Popu... where nature adapts constantly.
Now think about the fact that Lynxes have a max age of 15 years plus and the cycle takes 10 years.
I really don't think that the climate change messaging is bad and misguided. At the end of the day, it's because climate change advocacy is underfunded and there is a lot of money in oil.
If climate change messaging was nicer, it's hard for me to see how anyone would care more anyway. On the other hand, if climate change advocates had real money behind it on the order of big oil PR and regulatory capture, you would see change and legislation really quick.
Also, wasn't there something about, you know, caring for the generations to come? Maybe I misremember...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-17/us-spendi... | https://archive.today/EBmaI
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/09/climate-...
there will be plenty of empty houses for the generations to come.
It's still part of Malthusian theory, it's just the logical conclusion of population collapse after resource depletion.
Back around 2007 it was a HUGE topic and many of us thought we'd be living in hell by 2025. Yet here we are and climate change rarely even makes the news.
What I said about the media is that they talked about climate change a whole lot more back then compared to now. Beside the Iraq War it was one of the big topics that everyone was always talking about. Nowadays it seems more of a background issue.
In your memory what was the zeitgeist at the time?
For most of my life it has been something like: we recently crossed some threshold, if we don't act now we'll cross this other one, disaster is 15-30 years out. Recent freak natural disaster is going to become a yearly thing.
How is the saying: "Aviate, navigate, communicate". We are strictly in an aviate phase.
Personally I think China was and is the most equipped to solve the problem. They have the talent, have the top-down leadership that is supposedly required to implement solutions, and are well aware that the future belongs to them.
Sure, if you dismiss all the news about floodings etc.
Just because it's not titled "flooding due to climate change" ....