None of those issues you’re talking about seem intractable
using the same tools that caused them, frankly, and are likely no harder to solve (if we want) than some of the things we’ve already successfully resolved quite thoroughly like;
- world hunger from a technical/energy basis, as the only remaining hunger issues appear to be politically driven.
- Smallpox, Cholera, Typhoid, Leprosy, and a large slew of other infectious diseases which have ravaged humanity since at least the dawn of recorded history, and probably earlier. Even Malaria is controllable/controlled, depending on the political situation.
- Death by violence or accident is a rare and distant possibility for humans today compared to even 100 years ago.
- Actual life impacting environmental pollution (comparing historical norms like open sewers, indoor wood burning stoves, dangerous fine particulates/dusts), etc. is at historic lows.
- Real world quality of life for the population of the world is at the highest level globally we’ve seen, probably ever. And while there will be dips, that is not likely to materially change back. At least not without a lot of work to intentionally break things.
Do we still have issues that need to be solved, and more upcoming? You bet. Some of them quite urgent. We also have more tools than ever at our disposal to solve them, if/when we use them.
Currently, the biggest issue appears that it isn’t actually obviously critical that we use them, so people are holding back. Because it’s more fun to live their lives than make the sacrifices necessary to use many of those tools.
I mean, just look back to what was going on 100 years ago vs now.
If my view is myopic, yours is rosy. Almost everything you listed is a consequence of us making use of a finite fuel source that was many times denser than anything before, which we are using up faster than ever at the price of the biosphere, but you're assuming the red queen will win her race because she hasn't lost it in the past. That whole "if" we harness the tools we have to solve our problems is doing way too much heavy lifting, and completely ignores the question of if we do indeed have the tools needed to solve the problems we face in the first place.
If your view is that all life will cease on this planet from our current state, then I have records of several billion years of past existence of life on this planet as proof that is relatively unlikely. Especially given the relatively minor (from a geological history perspective) nature of the things you are talking about.
Also if your take on my view is that things will be pleasant, ‘fine’, ‘fun’, or with no change or conflict in the future, then I suggest you re-read it.
I see no reason to think that things will not continue in some form. And I have no reason to think that the issues you are naming are unsolvable, with sufficient motivation. Pain and existential threat being historically very effective motivators.
Right now there are historically very low levels of those motivators. We also have an exceptional ability to insulate us from those motivators (historically), especially in the developed world.
Hell, we haven’t even taken a war time footing economically on things like energy yet.
> then I have records of several billion years of past existence of life on this planet as proof that is relatively unlikely.
Have you looked at that record?
There literal End Of The World happened 6 times!
Mass extinction events like the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Basically everyone died 6 times, and 99% of all spieces that ever existed are extinct. Everything bigger than a squirrel died out multiple times over.
> we haven’t taken a war time footing
This is a fantasy that a chain smoker can quit any time he wants and will really kick the habit once he has motivation, like when the doctor tells him he has stage 4 lunch cancer!
We knew about the problem for 120 years, we had the means too - a fleet of electric busses operated in London in 1901. You are on copium
Quite familiar with the fossil record (at least as well as we know it now).
The great oxidation (probably the single most apocalyptic biosphere wide event yeah?) nuked ~ 80% of the biosphere, far from all. It was the modern day equivalent of if a simple life form evolved to (energetically favorable) emit sulphuric acid and cyanide.
And no known life at the time had things like hydroponics, nuclear reactors, bunkers (or concrete), chemistry, nuclear weapons, gene editing tech, etc.
We’ve also had events that pushed atmospheric Co2 to > 3000 ppm, atmospheric oxygen to 35% (above current levels of 20-22%), massive asteroid strikes, etc.
The whole world is running on copium right now, which is why none of the issues being brought up are being addressed.
When people are no longer able to ignore it, it will change and rapidly. Probably involving over correction and create a whole slew of new (and different problems), as is the norm.
As you note, we have the means. And it isn’t technically difficult. It’s just not as fun/easy/pleasant/cheap as the current behavior.
Keep in mind, less than 100 years ago, half the world was literally trying to murder the other half using every effort conceivable and every bit of modern technology they could muster. Not that long before there were endemic diseases everywhere that killed 30% of everyone infected.
We have a long, long, long way to go before we conceivably hit ‘too late’. Will people die? Yes. But people die anyway.
If that is comforting or not, is up to you. Either way, the wheel will continue to turn.
None of those issues you’re talking about seem intractable using the same tools that caused them, frankly, and are likely no harder to solve (if we want) than some of the things we’ve already successfully resolved quite thoroughly like;
- world hunger from a technical/energy basis, as the only remaining hunger issues appear to be politically driven.
- Smallpox, Cholera, Typhoid, Leprosy, and a large slew of other infectious diseases which have ravaged humanity since at least the dawn of recorded history, and probably earlier. Even Malaria is controllable/controlled, depending on the political situation.
- Death by violence or accident is a rare and distant possibility for humans today compared to even 100 years ago.
- Actual life impacting environmental pollution (comparing historical norms like open sewers, indoor wood burning stoves, dangerous fine particulates/dusts), etc. is at historic lows.
- Real world quality of life for the population of the world is at the highest level globally we’ve seen, probably ever. And while there will be dips, that is not likely to materially change back. At least not without a lot of work to intentionally break things.
Do we still have issues that need to be solved, and more upcoming? You bet. Some of them quite urgent. We also have more tools than ever at our disposal to solve them, if/when we use them.
Currently, the biggest issue appears that it isn’t actually obviously critical that we use them, so people are holding back. Because it’s more fun to live their lives than make the sacrifices necessary to use many of those tools.
I mean, just look back to what was going on 100 years ago vs now.