How many years before we burn up all the economically feasible carbon-based fuels on the planet? A century? Two?
At some point there won’t be nearly so much to put into the atmosphere, and the greenhouse effect will diminish. We will have to switch to energy sources that do not put carbon in the atmosphere, and presumably the planet will cool a bit.
So I don’t see global warming lasting forever. However, while it lasts, it is hard to say with much geographic accuracy what will happen where. We can say the oceans will rise, and the seashore lines will diminish. There will be hotter weather and larger and more dangerous storms.
That was something that bothered me at the Dem Convention. They made fun of the CEO of Exxon for saying something like “We will cope.” The truth is that we will cope. People will be hurt, and it’s already too late to stop that. But we will cope. And I think it’s too late to stop humankind from burning up all the oil and gas and coal we can find. It will happen. Tough noogies.
Would I like to see it happen over a more spread out time? Not sure. Intuitively, yes. But maybe it would be better to burn it all up fast and then be forced to move on. Because I don’t believe for a second that we can get it together, as a race, to stop ourselves from using the easy sources of energy as fast as possible.
I think it’s better to focus on coping mechanisms instead of worrying about if and when things will happen. Clearly, global warming has had an impact already, but it doesn’t matter if you agree with me or not. You still have to deal with the Katrinas and Isaacs and eroding shorelines and the need for energy. I believe we have to focus on energy production and on disaster preparedness, but I don’t think we can do anything about global warming.
Can’t be stopped. That train done left the station.