Bernie Sanders:Scientists say our planet could be 5 to 10 degrees warmer by the end of..

[Playinghardball]

...this century. This is catastrophic....

[tularetom]

1. The world's population is projected to reach 11 billion by 2100

I don't think a transition away from fossil fuels is going to do it. Other resources are going to be depleted as well.

Can the world sustain 11 billion hunter-gatherers? Subsistence farmers?

I think we need a sign on the earth like the ones they post in elevators:



And surely somebody far smarter than me has calculated just what that number might be.

[jeff47]

2. People have tried to come up with a number. They keep being wrong.

It turns out we're really good at figuring out how to feed more people.

The fundamental physical limits, like the energy hitting the Earth's surface from the sun, would handle an utterly enormous population. But it is unlikely we'd reach those limits.

[truebluegreen]

3. If the world is 5-10 degrees warmer by the end of the century

I doubt if there will be 11 billion people around to "enjoy" it.

[tularetom]

4. I guess that's really the question isn't it

At what point will the earth say "screw this" and begin purging itself of the beings who are making such a mess of it?

And when that happens is it reversible? Will we reach a reverse tipping point on the way down? Or will the purge continue until it actually becomes the so called 6th mass extinction?

I'll be 159 years old in 2100, so I doubt if I'll be much help in turning things around at that point.

[Enthusiast]

6. You will have to work to 159 because Social Security won't be there for you.

[Hydra]

5. I wouldn't worry about the population

In every country that has easy birth control and a good living standard that does not require kids to make it work, negative population growth comes fast and hard.

I'd worry more about the fact that we don't have 85 years to get it right. I don't think we even have 10...

[raouldukelives]

7. K&R