For sure, this will bifurcate, cause those on one side to suffer greatly, & those on the other side will as usual pay for the convenience of it not affecting them.
But at the same time, I think the level of crisis is perhaps bigger than we realize. Climate scientists talk about the conveyor systems of the ocean, that literally keep the ocean flowing around the world. It's not spoken of very much, but the threat really does go up to "the ocean stops circulating" (is drastically drastically reduced in circulation). The ocean acidifies, runs out of dissolved oxygen,... dies.
Meanwhile we're already in an era of mass extinction for the animals. How many more shocks can the animals take?
Maybe the rich can get by on a deadening husk of a world without really noticing, maybe human life goes on. Who am I kidding, of course it does, but my general gist is that the current pattern of extreme weather & disasters being localized is knitting together as the crisis marchs into ever more dire territory into something truly globespanning & globe-wrecking, where earth itself will visibly no longer support the same everyday vitality of life, and where we have to find new means to artificially sustain the ecosphere & pollenate our farmlands.
I believe that vegans have made a strong point that humans can live reasonably well without any animal-derived foods and other materials, so a mass extinction of animals would not destroy our way of life.
The same goes for pollinators - while there are many commercially important plants that rely on pollinators (e.g. almonds as one of main exports of California), the staple crops that feed humanity - wheat, rice, corn, potatoes - do not require pollinators and would be viable even if all insects died.
So even the horrible ecological disaster scenarios threaten human wellbeing and comfort, but they don't really threaten the existence of humanity; fucking up our ecosystem would be a great cultural loss but industrialized farming could still march on.
But at the same time, I think the level of crisis is perhaps bigger than we realize. Climate scientists talk about the conveyor systems of the ocean, that literally keep the ocean flowing around the world. It's not spoken of very much, but the threat really does go up to "the ocean stops circulating" (is drastically drastically reduced in circulation). The ocean acidifies, runs out of dissolved oxygen,... dies.
Meanwhile we're already in an era of mass extinction for the animals. How many more shocks can the animals take?
Maybe the rich can get by on a deadening husk of a world without really noticing, maybe human life goes on. Who am I kidding, of course it does, but my general gist is that the current pattern of extreme weather & disasters being localized is knitting together as the crisis marchs into ever more dire territory into something truly globespanning & globe-wrecking, where earth itself will visibly no longer support the same everyday vitality of life, and where we have to find new means to artificially sustain the ecosphere & pollenate our farmlands.