Curiosity killed the climate

What will really happen if temperatures rise, sea levels creep up several inches or feet, and glaciers melt? Will we be plummeted into a drought? Will all biomes fluctuate until reaching a devastating equilibrium? What life will survive? What species will go extinct? Will humans survive?

Like most, I wonder what will happen if and when global warming really gets going. But I’m mostly just curious as to what will happen. It’s like a high-stakes bet, a mix of poker and Russian Roulette. Will reindeer become the next wooly mammoth? Will future humans find our remains perfectly preserved in blocks of ice or layers of silt? Will our civilizations become legendary like the Mayans, Akkadians, or Egyptians?

So maybe I’m crazy for not being worried about drowning to death or dying of thirst, but I guess it doesn’t feel real to me. If unpredictable environmental shifts were happening anyway, why worry? Of course I do my best to reduce my effect on global warming, but I don’t really see the point of doing more than that. I don’t think going crazy with worry would help anything. Although it may be completely unreasonable, I figure as long as I stay away from coastal cities and know what’s coming, I should be ok. Like many people have said (including Red Sky at Morning), the people who live off of the land have the most to fear. Although this may seem grossly insensitive, the New Yorker article made it quite clear to me that the destruction of cultures due to climate factors is fairly common, if not inevitable. Yes, this time it’s man-made, but what more can I do? I’m not a politician, or climate activist, nor do I plan to be. I will do my best, but that’s all I can do. That, and wait.