Highlights: 

  • Climate scientists believe that rising global temperatures will inevitably arouse war, famine, death, and other calamities.  
  • Such calamities are predicted to occur by the year 2100.
  • Meanwhile, longevity experts believe individuals alive today will live beyond the year 2100.  

Almost 80% of the world’s leading climate scientists predict that the earth will reach apocalypse-triggering temperatures, according to a Guardian poll. When the Guardian asked climate scientists what they felt about the future, Dr. Ruth Cerezo-Mota said, 

“Sometimes it is almost impossible not to feel hopeless and broken. After all the flooding, fires, and droughts of the last three years worldwide, all related to climate change, and after the fury of Hurricane Otis in Mexico, my country, I really thought governments were ready to listen to the science, to act in the people’s best interest.”

Another scientist from South Africa who did not want to be named said, 

“I expect a semi-dystopian future with substantial pain and suffering for the people of the global south. The world’s response to date is reprehensible – we live in an age of fools.”

Continuing this dreary theme, Dr. James Renwick, from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, said,

“It is the biggest threat humanity has faced, with the potential to wreck our social fabric and way of life. It has the potential to kill millions, if not billions, through starvation, war over resources, displacement. None of us will be unaffected by the devastation.”

The End Is Nigh 

While most have likely already noticed the record-breaking changes in weather across the globe, it may get worse. Each year brings higher global daily average temperatures and we surpassed 2 C° above preindustrial levels in 2015. 

Graph showing a rise in global temperatures from 1940 to 2020.
(From the Guardian).

Dr. Tim Lenton, professor and director of the Global Systems Institute in the United Kingdom explains, “For every 0.1 degrees of warming above present levels, about 140 million more people will be exposed to dangerous heat.” Considering that the consequences of rising global temperatures have already begun, it is likely only a matter of time before the resulting consequences become more frequent and more severe. Dr. Gretta Pecl from the University of Tasmania in Australia says, 

“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years. [Authorities] will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”

Keeping the timeframe within many people’s lifetimes, according to the Guardian poll, 77% of climate scientists expect the global temperature to rise to at least 2.5 C° between now and 2100.

Poll results.
(Image from the Guardian)

Thus, we could see an apocalyptic scenario occur anywhere between 2029 and 2100. Interestingly, the inventor of calculus, Sir Isaac Newton, also a theologist, predicted the apocalypse would occur in 2060. 

Meanwhile, Scientists Are Discovering How to Live Longer

Recently, scientists have come to a better understanding of aging. In doing so, they have discovered molecules potentially capable of slowing aging. Dr. David Sinclair from Harvard University in the United States has said, 

“Over the last 20 years, there have been a number of molecules that have been found to retard the aging process, at least in animals, and potentially a couple of drugs that are in humans. That made me optimistic that somebody who might make it to 150 has already been born.”

One of these molecules is called NAD+, which has been found to decline with age. This decline may contribute to chronic diseases of aging, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer. However, replenishing NAD+ could possibly prevent these diseases, effectively delaying death. 

The problem is that attempting to live to 150 may be a fruitless endeavor considering the turmoil predicted by climate scientists. Still, an increase in global temperature is not likely to cause human extinction. Some individuals will survive and they may be the ones who have taken steps to live longer, such as millionaires like Bryan Johnson. However, in the end, it’s possible that climate scientists are just exaggerating and everyone should continue to ignore them all.