we may not be as durable as cockroaches but our species will be around for 1000s of yrs if not millions.

I agree human activity will eventually so fundamentally alter the biosphere of the planet that life as we know it may not be possible.

I agree wholeheartedly it goes right along w the tragedy of the commons.

Rather than merely blaming Tribalism as the main culprit I, personally, think that CONSUMERISM and the Rampant Greed of both Governments and Corporations ( Founders/Owners, Executives and Shareholders included) should shoulder their more than fair share of the blame.

@Triphid l clearly stated it is PART of the problem. Governments, corporations, shareholders are all just another example of tribes. Most folks are tribal by nature. ☺

@Sticks48 Yes and I stated that Tribalism is NOT the main culprit (part of the problem) but only one of the numerous parts of it.
I think that our tendency towards Nationalism and National Zealotry has replaced Tribalism thus creating an ' invisible' barrier that restricts us from becoming what we truly should have evolved to being by now.

@Triphid If you have ever lived in or spent much time in the South, you would know this has been here all my life. trump gave them permission to come out and show who they are and they have. They exist everywhere here, but in the South they don't try to disguise it. There is a level of ignorance in the South that is really scary. Reason means absolutely nothing with these folks. As Ron White said, "You can't fix stupid." He is absolutely right.

@Sticks48 Yes, sadly, that is very prevalent in the American South and Trump is prime example of what America has created by being so.
Stupidity exists everywhere there are humans, a sad point of fact, but here in Australia we seem to have learned to try to ignore stupidity, for the most part, and rely upon rationality, logic and reasoning, something that, in my opinion, America and Americans could do well in trying for themselves.
No, you ' can't fix stupid,' but you can go some very long ways towards mitigating it.

@Triphid Hopefully this election will help turn this around. ☺

@Sticks48 Perhaps it might but I kind of doubt it since President Cheeto Trump has been arse-licking with all the Evangelist Crazies of late and you Americans seem to falling head over heels for his " Make America Great Again" rhetoric.
Plus, in my opinion, the vast majority of Yanks adore anyone who exhibits the ' Custer Mentality' of ' ride in and shoot them up, take what you want.'
They seem to conveniently forget that the 'primitive' Sioux peoples gave Custer the arse kicking to beat all arse kickings.

@Triphid His hard core followers are probably about in the 25 to 30 percent range. Don't forget Clinton won by over three million votes. It is only the ridiculous system we have electing Presidents that put him in office. It will be about voter turnout.

@Sticks48 America has a ' voluntary' system of voting does it not?
IMO, that breeds APATHY amongst the Voters/Voting Public for starters and 25% of the ' Red-Neck' votes in favour of that Over-Inflated, Self-Righteous, Egomaniacal, Belligerent, Misogynistic, Sociopathic Dipshit are what got him in, now he'll have almost every 'Red-Neck' vote you can dream of on his payroll, so to speak.

@Triphid There is a tendency in the U.S. of pulling the country back when it has swung to far to the left or the right. We will see if that still holds true in a few days.

@Sticks48 The very best of luck on that one.

He didn't misspell cooperation. I believe your post speaks to exactly what he meant in that sentence. We are all cooperatively participating in our own demise by not resisting when we have knowledge and can do better.

And yes. I am putting my money on science (with some changes in attitudes like consumerism).. what are you betting on? Or are you just thinking there is no hope?

And I should add in.. we also need to change our attitude [about] never ending growth..
I think science can save us, but not if we stay on our current path.

I agree. In the perfect world, very few people would breed. The quality of life is diminishing fast.

solve climate change? so you think our technology can change solar flare activity? can prevent our planet from slightly changing it's axis of rotation over the millenia? how about preventing the planet from changing it's polarity?

@callmedubious
The phenomena you mention are not responsible for the current warming.

@callmedubious
The scientific community has long since reached consensus on this issue: the current warming anthropogenic, meaning human-caused. Our burning of fossil fuels is producing about 100 times more CO2 than the greatest natural carbon dioxide source, which is volcanoes. It is an amount far beyond what the natural carbon sinks can absorb. So the greenhouse gas accumulates in the atmosphere, and the more of it there is the less heat escapes into outer space.

@Flyingsaucesir-- not sure which planet you're currently on.

@callmedubious
Dude, your comments reveal a serious lack of science literacy. Where are you getting your information? The right wing propaganda echo chamber at Fox News is not providing you with good information. If you want the straight dope on climate science I suggest you start with NASA, then check out NOAA, and don't forget the EPA. The scientists there are just regular people who put on their pants one leg at a time, like you and me. They go to work and do their jobs and ideology plays no part of their final conclusions. They just try to get the science right. And they do a pretty good job.

@Flyingsaucesir you can callmedubious about the 100% veracity of all these reports from scientists which are dependent on govt grants.
there are 100s of scientists including climatologists & at least 1 Nobel Laureate who have expressed skepticism.
i could post opposing reports but i'm not getting into any of that. you're a 100% believer & i'm just callmedubious.
let's leave it at that.

@callmedubious
I wish it were that simple. Unfortunately what people think about the causes and effects of climate change has real consequences. We don't have a lot of time to make some radical changes in how we generate electricity and power our transportation. If we don't act soon, feedbacks in the natural system will kick in and effectively take away our ability to avoid the worst effects of a w warming atmosphere and oceans.

The fossil fuel industry been spending a considerable amount of money in their effort to cast doubt on climate science. They fund think tanks and private laboratories staffed by people with real science credentials. These few scientists (they comprise only a small fraction of the scientific community) have found for themselves a path of less resistance. They earn generous salaries and in return they cherry pick data and provide biased interpretations which get published in slick formats that to the lay person seem like legitimate science. Of course no scientist would be fooled by the propaganda, but it does not matter because they are not the target audience. The game is to sow doubt among the general public, and thereby achieve the overall goal of continuing to sell lots of fossil fuels to an energy-thirsty society. The people behind all this are the owners of large, multinational corporations with profits in the hundreds if billions if dollars annually. They are old farts, and they know they won't live to face the consequences of their actions. They are not interested in seeing their profits vanish. So they spend a fraction of their wealth on profit insurance by buying off a few scientists and media outlets and lobbyists on K Street. The latter outnumber the members if Congress by five-to-one, and often write the bills that are introduced on the floors if the House and Senate. Business friendly bills that relax environmental regulations and generally make it easier to make money. It all about money.