Creative Speculation
Related: About this forumWhat are YOU worried about?
I'm wondering where folks think things are headed. Whatever that means for you.
I'll start this off. I'm thinking we're really on a roll into things that could never happen, things out of nowhere, things only historians told us about, and things our grandparents never heard of.
Ready?
I'm wondering if we could have monstrous winter snowfalls around the world because ... Mother Earth has heated up and the atmosphere is carrying lots of moisture. Did you read the post on DU the other day about reaching heat and humidity above the threshold of human survival far quicker than anyone thought?
Well, now, with all that moisture, we've reduced energy use due to COVID-19 by a whopping amount. I don't know how much, but people report clean air for the first time since 1958, and the Atlanta Federal Reserve predictive arm says GDP could be off 34% in the second quarter. So we have cooling that will meet all that moisture from global warming.
I think we could see a Jack London "Call of the Wild" type winter, snowfalls of 7, 8, 10, 14 feet in parts of the US.
So do you want to worry about it along with me?
brewens
(15,359 posts)take it. That's why Trump and the 1% are so desperate to blame anyone else. They will not take kindly to the people at the top actually coming out way ahead on this. They will tell us that half the worlds wealth just evaporated or something like that, as if there was nothing that could have been done about it. You lost everything, well that's just the way it worked out.
The only thing is it's all relative. If the 1% comes out farther ahead than they were, they are actually wealthier, own more property and have more power. I hope we're not gonna take it!
GriffenRamsey
(181 posts)Death of friends and family
Starvation and hunger
The loss of doctors, veterinarians, dentists and healthcare providers due to bankruptcy and suicide.
Increased pollution from Trump's gutting EPA
Loss of ballot access as election approaches
Disruption and collapse of housing market
Widespread bank insolvency due to bankruptcies
Collapse of the US bond market
Collapse of the labor market
Year 3 with no vaccine
The virus can be spread by mosquito
The virus becomes endemic in the human population
The virus adapts to human, becoming more lethal
The virus becomes endemic in a human-adjacent, widespread species like dogs or cats or fleas or rats
The US becomes a pariah nation as it settles in as the global reservoir of the virus while the rest of the world controls it
WAR - I have dozens of scenarios
The supreme court decides Trump cannot be subpoenaed
Trump disrupts election
Trump calls for armed insurrection
The U.S. descends into a Rwanda or Serbian style orgy of violence and civil war
The coalition of dictators and autocrats worldwide destroys democracy and the rule of law
A world too weak to fight climate change
...oh, and Spiders.
bucolic_frolic
(47,005 posts)I would need the overnight hours to worry about them.
Let me help you out. Banks and markets won't collapse. How do I know? The Fed is printing money from here to the moon and back. Yes the currency would become worthless over time, but liquidity will be provided to give the appearance of solvency.
There! Now you have extra time to concentrate on the rest of your list!
GriffenRamsey
(181 posts)Thanks. That's what I hope as well re liquidity.
brush
(57,567 posts)SCantiGOP
(14,247 posts)Will have no measurable impact on the temperature of the atmosphere. That is measured in hundredths of a degree and takes years to have an impact. We have been pumping fossil fuel emissions into the atmosphere since we started burning coal hundreds of years ago.
GriffenRamsey
(181 posts)"However - and this is unusual - after two weeks of declines in concentrations, the carbon dioxide concentrations began to increase, setting a new record for highest ever, 416.82 ppm to be superseded by a slightly higher new record this week ."
bucolic_frolic
(47,005 posts)Yes global warming has been steadily upward since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
By 2019 we were going like gangbusters. Then, add in the Australian wildfires.
Now, abruptly drop the use of fossil fuels by 35%. Such abrupt drops in a peak environment spiked upward by in this case wildfire is something that hasn't happened in recent history. Maybe you could make a case for World War II, don't know how good the data.
The effect of sharp drop in an overheated environment is .... join us next time when scientists figure out if there is anything to figure out.
Hotler
(12,175 posts)leaders will continue to play nice with the repugs. If we lose, fascism will no longer linger on the sidelines. The orange one, Barr, Pompeo and that little rat fucker Stephen Miller are fascist.
Stuart G
(38,726 posts)Has McConnell gone out of his way to work with Schumer? Has he done anything to help all of us, rather than Trump? Has Trump bent over backwards to work with us? You have your answer. Our elected leaders will not play nice with the repugs. Trump has proven who he is and so have the others. If we win, it will not be nice, but revenge is never nice.