That’s a very different claim then that climate change will not “result in any more suffering than the current or a previous state of the world”. As that editorial acknowledges, even the 2 degrees we’re tracked for will have plenty of catastrophic outcomes:
> We will have caused incalculable damage to ecosystems. We will have worsened droughts, floods, famines, heat waves. We will have bleached coral reefs, acidified the ocean, driven countless animal species to extinction. Millions, maybe tens of millions, of people will die from increased heat, and more will be killed by the indirect consequences of climate change. Far more yet will be forced to flee their homes or live lives of deep poverty or suffering.
It’s also worth remembering that the 4-5 degree predictions were the worst case forecasts assuming that we did nothing, and the more optimistic tone of that piece is recognizing the benefits of having made changes. While it’s true that we don’t want to give up hope it’s even more important that we don’t use the successes we have had to support the fossil fuel industry-funded siren calls for inaction. Our goals for the world we leave our children should be much higher than “humans are not reduced to roving post-apocalyptic bands of survivors”. A world where the population equivalents of large cities are dying from unprecedented weather events is still one where they’re going to wish we’d listened to climate scientists decades earlier.
