"We'll Adapt" To Climate Collapse - A Lie That's Ripe For Political Weaponization

[hatrack]

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Mr Tillerson went on to become Secretary of State for Donald Trump, in no small part because of his friendly relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Andrew Dessler in Climate Brink:

So the next time someone says “we’ll adapt,” ask them if they’re OK with, say, Central Americans adapting to climate change by moving to the U.S. Are they willing to open our borders to climate refugees? I think you’ll find that the very voices championing adaptation are among the most likely to also oppose immigration. So the #1 way that humans have adapted over the history of humanity is a non-starter to the “we’ll adapt” crowd.

The alternative to migration is adaptation in place, but that’s not particularly attractive to the “we’ll adapt” crowd either. Building sea walls to guard against rising ocean levels, infrastructure to handle extreme precipitation events, or adding air conditioning to mitigate heatwaves all cost a lot of money. Who’s going to foot the bill for this? The inescapable answer is that the world’s rich will have to assist the less fortunate. This means, for example, the U.S. paying to help Africa adapt. Within the U.S., the rich will have to pay to help the poor adapt.

But there’s nothing the “we’ll adapt” crowd will oppose more than that. We can see evidence of their unwillingness to help the poor every day. For example:

Republicans Want To Cut Food Assistance For 5 Million Low-Income Babies And Parents

Do you think these people are going to pay for poor people to air condition their houses? Or pay to protect a poor neighborhood from flooding? Or any of the million other ways that we’ll have to spend money to adapt to the new climate. Of course not.

Most worrying: The weaponization of adaptation The bottom line is that the “we’ll adapt” crowd is not serious about adaptation and they do not support any policy that will help people adapt. Rather, “we’ll adapt” are soothing words used as an excuse to do nothing about climate change. And it’s not just the neglect of adaptation. Adaptation will be weaponized to harm groups they don’t like. We can already see this taking place. For example, there’s no more marginalized group of people than prisoners. In Texas, the majority of prisoners live in un-air-conditioned facilities. Having these prisoners living in concrete buildings when the daytime temperature reaches 110F (and nighttime temperatures don’t drop below 80F) is basically torture and it is actually killing prisoners.

EDIT

https://climatecrocks.com/2023/10/27/why-relying-on-climate-adaptation-will-be-a-disaster/#more-92426

[WestMichRad]

1. This!!

Highly recommended!
“We’ll adapt” is appeasement, presaging a “kick the can down the road” attitude so that nothing gets done.

[ms liberty]

2. Wish I could rec this a dozen times. n/t

[ret5hd]

3. I believe, in this context, "adapt" means...

“survival of the whitest”.

[Auggie]

7. Or, "Survival of the richest"

[Dustlawyer]

4. I'm sure the adapt crowd is the same one denying climate change all these years.

[Voltaire2]

5. Well we will either adapt or go extinct.

As you note, we are seeing the adaptation of the global system, and it’s pretty shitty. Fascism appears to be the political adaptation globally.

[ancianita]

6. Most important going into 2024: the Biden/Harris administration has rejected this "we'll adapt" approach of 11 yrs ago.

.

[flashman13]

8. Everything out of Tillerson's mouth is pretty much nonsense.

What he is saying is just one small step away from complete denial. Yes, climate change is real, but it won't be so bad. After all, the climate models are unreliable so until we have more answers we can just carry on with business as usual. Humans are very good a adaption and we will adapt to a "warmer" climate. In the past very often adaption meant after trashing the local environment you just moved somewhere as yet untrashed. The problem is that we are now trashing the entire planet and there is no place to go (certainly not Texas). A little sea level rise, 4 to 6 inches, no problem. Nothing that a little seawall can't fix. When it reaches 3 meters that seawall will have to be somewhat higher and run the length of the every coast line in the world.

IMHO the vast majority of people have no idea what is really coming thanks to the doubt the deniers have been spreading since the 70s. Good luck homo sapiens - you're going to need it.