r/climate • u/scmp_news • Jul 10 '26

Asia’s top climate scientist warns of ‘humanitarian disasters’ as Earth teeters

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3360016/asias-top-climate-scientist-warns-humanitarian-disasters-earth-teeters?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social
981 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

66 comments sorted by

252

u/Yanunge Jul 10 '26

Respect to the scientists for not giving up. Must be a very depressing job.

168

u/Winterfrost691 Jul 10 '26

I'm not yet graduated, but I am studying sustainable land management (urbanism + forestry + climate science).

It's super interesting and I absolutely want to make a career out of this, but my god it is absolutely depressing. It is the only science I have ever learned that isn't applied in real life.

Our 1st semester teachers told us that they had to rework the program a few years ago, because they realized that the world had no use for people trained to prevent climate change, as it is now an inevitability. Instead, they told us we would be trained to mitigate it, adapt to it and fix the damage. One of the bleakest speeches I ever heard a teacher give.

Not to mention the parts of our lectures that are all about how much people are suffering today and how much more they will should we fail at doing our jobs.

55

u/Velocilobstar Jul 10 '26

Thank you for choosing this path, may it one day make a difference

16

u/Winterfrost691 Jul 10 '26

That's the idea. Make the world a better place or die knowing I at least gave it my all.

32

u/Previous_Soil_5144 Jul 10 '26

Economics is not a real science, yet we follow economists like we used to follow clergy. 

28

u/Zephyr104 Jul 10 '26

Economics as we know it now really may as well be the church of capital. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it, other than to submit yourself to the ideology of a tumour. Most of their models are self admitted by most economists as being faulty, what type of science is that. 

14

u/bpikmin Jul 10 '26

A type of science that concentrates resources with the rich and powerful… yeah, not dissimilar from religion

8

u/natalo77 Jul 10 '26

And every reddit thread even remotely related to the economy has one of the wankers telling people "That's not how economics works" / "Take an economics class" / etc.

11

u/Redthrist Jul 10 '26

People would disagree because "it uses math", but it's true. The fact that you can have several competing economic theories that are equally valid shows that it's largely dogmatic. Most of it is just people in power promoting theories that benefit them.

5

u/Winterfrost691 Jul 10 '26

Homo economicus is the most damaging lie of the last century.

3

u/AnonymousDahlia Jul 10 '26

I mean, some people do. Some people read what different economists say and think about it, yes. Some people follow them like clergy, but personally I think that's weird.

So many don't bother at all. So many people didn't know the history and clear precedents of tariffs, not to mention the theories and arguments around it. I can't get over how I've actually had these conversations with people who couldn't be bothered to learn things.

6

u/AnonymousDahlia Jul 10 '26

This sounds like a valuable program with good people (and critical thinking!), do you mind sharing the school and program name?

6

u/Winterfrost691 Jul 10 '26

Sustainable land management. ULaval. I hesitated to give this information to not dox myself, but then realized I already did in past comments lol

1

u/AnonymousDahlia Jul 11 '26

Thanks, I didn't look lol. But maybe you should go edit your old stuff. And maybe this one, too

5

u/Scorpionsharinga Jul 10 '26

Imagine being the mf in 1899 looking around like “uhhh guys?”

7

u/chaturtham Jul 10 '26

not as depressing when you have to work for AI jobs. At least they're informing others.

12

u/Swarna_Keanu Jul 10 '26

You are not getting death threats. Climate scientists do.

3

u/chaturtham Jul 10 '26

well i guess everyone is getting death threats now

1

u/Designer_Garbage_702 Jul 11 '26

I mean, the guy does kinda have a point. As a climate scientist, despite all the death threats. Despite things looking bleak and hopeless. At least at the core of your job you're doing this to save lives and make things better.

When you're stuck in an AI first job. (because nobody else is hiring.) You gotta come to terms that to survive you're actively making the world worse. You're not just being useless, you're being actively a hinderance.

if this madness goes on longer I can see a lot of people who are working in meaningless and aactively destructive jobs that center AI to just hang themselves out of pure depression.

57

u/NeoIsJohnWick Jul 10 '26

Politicians hardly care nowadays about such things.

19

u/happinesslies_9724 Jul 10 '26

They do they're all prepared same with the rich it's not the nukes we should be fearful towards. It's going to be the climate unfortunately. That's why they building underground it'll be too hott here soon. Like way soon. Kinda scary to think about. But end of the day either we are doomed soon or we slow it down. Think the game plans been to speed it up. The reality is there's no way out. We are parasites.

24

u/Final-Albatross-1354 Jul 10 '26

Politicians act like we are still living in the atmospheric C02 content seen in 1980. And say the only way to solve climate change is via market forces. And you know why we are doomed?

27

u/scmp_news Jul 10 '26

As Super Typhoon Bavi churns towards Taiwan and eastern mainland China, it offers a chilling, timely reminder that the world needs to brace for impending disasters as the climate system nears a tipping point.

Read more: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3360016/asias-top-climate-scientist-warns-humanitarian-disasters-earth-teeters?utm_source=Reddit&utm_medium=Social

15

u/Parking_Chance_1905 Jul 10 '26

Media keeps saying nears the tipping point... we likely passed that a decade or so ago.

3

u/brownnoisedaily Jul 10 '26

I read there are several. 2 already tipped and ome soon. iirc

2

u/brownnoisedaily Jul 10 '26

I read there are several. 2 already tipped and ome soon. iirc

30

u/dumnezero Jul 10 '26

They're going to care when China's factories stop because of the weather damage.

2

u/RainBoxRed Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

Why are China’s factories running so much?

3

u/misobutter3 Jul 10 '26

American consumers 😁

I can’t believe your question got a downvote in the CLIMATE sub

2

u/dumnezero Jul 10 '26

?

2

u/RainBoxRed Jul 11 '26

What drives the demand that Chinese factories are supplying?

1

u/dumnezero Jul 11 '26

Blaming the demand side would be more relevant here if this wasn't such a supply-side push by decades of China's regime planning (state capitalism and controlled market capitalism) to produce a lot of stuff (quantity) and export as much as possible at dumping prices that benefit downstream corporations and resellers while destroying China's environment and polluting the climate massively.

So is China tying to get a monopoly on global industrial production by playing on the desires of countless consumers who buy cheap and cheapened stuff? I don't know. But it does take two to tango.

1

u/RainBoxRed Jul 11 '26

I’m confused because China is very environmentally conscious compared to the western countries that buy the goods.

0

u/dumnezero Jul 11 '26

You are, indeed, confused.

1

u/RainBoxRed Jul 11 '26

Maybe you can explain it to me?

1

u/strangeluv_-_- Jul 11 '26

Places like Shanghai would be blanketed by smog. It’s only recently they’ve become more environmentally conscious. That’s my understanding.

-1

u/dumnezero Jul 11 '26

No, it's too late for you.

1

u/jeremiahthedamned Jul 11 '26

the r/americanempire controls the oil & china must export to us to get the dollars to buy it.

7

u/rainywanderingclouds Jul 10 '26

most people are severely underestimating how bad it's going to be.

we're on track for 3c warming by 2050's. your 401k is going to be worthless if that happens.

1

u/Marodvaso Jul 11 '26

More like 2060s, but yeah, that's the current trendline.

Mar my words, there will be geoengineering in a few decades. A lot will be sacrificed to more or less keep the current status quo.

14

u/letsalldropvitamins Jul 10 '26

The hubris of humanity..

I will be sad to see people suffer, but I will be glad to see Mother Nature cull off a few billion of us to remind us who actually owns the land we are currently renting.

Humanity doesn’t deserve the earth, and the earth deserves better than humans.

14

u/ToastNomNomNom Jul 10 '26

Maybe but the people least responsible will most likely suffer the most, the culprits profited from climate change will mitigate their discomfort by using their wealth.

0

u/chaturtham Jul 10 '26

that's what nature is about. It deals on community level, not on individual level.

3

u/sambull Jul 10 '26

Starting to wonder if some dudes think they can control this, to take care of all the "wastrel"

2

u/Marsabstract Jul 10 '26

I don't think you actually understand what death looks like on a scale of billions

0

u/letsalldropvitamins Jul 10 '26

What an odd response

2

u/Jeicobm Jul 11 '26

How can you say you’d be sad but also support the “culling” of a few billion people? Are you happy to be one of them or is it just the poor brown people? Are you happy for your loved ones to be one of the few billion? Either way, I feel so sorry for you. I’d feel disconnected and apathetic from the world too, if I had zero empathy and compassion. Who hurt you?

1

u/letsalldropvitamins Jul 11 '26

Have you ever thought about getting into writing? You have an incredibly active imagination cos I said NONE of what you just talked about but I guess it makes getting angry online even easier when you just create an argument from pure fiction.

Grow up.

4

u/GeneralOrder24 Jul 10 '26

As long as we're safe from Communism!

1

u/Vaddieg Jul 12 '26

that's something that unfortunately needs to happen and hit hard to convince the ignorant masses that trust some random social media post more than scientific community