Hank: climate change will make life worse, by an amount not yet known (2018)
prediction · status: unresolved · last event: repeated (2025-07-25) · owner: Hank
In August 2021 Hank said climate change will make life worse, by an amount not yet known. In 2022 he restated it, naming failing crops, overloaded power grids and burning forests.
Told alongside: Hank: climate change will hit hardest those least responsible, while affluent people will be mostly okay (2021)
About: climate change
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-12-04 | predicted | Hank says the world is going to be worse: there will be climate refugees, and the global situation will probably destabilize somewhat as we deal with the problem. (hedged) | When it All Seems Like Too Much 00:01:04 |
| 2021-08-13 | predicted | Climate change is going to make life worse, but we do not know how much worse. | How We Fix the Climate 00:01:56 |
| 2022-07-29 | repeated | Hank says human infrastructure assumes rainfall and temperature stay as they were; as they change, crop yields might fall and leave people hungry, power grids fail under air conditioning, and forests burn. (hedged) | How Climate Change /Actually/ Works...in 4 Minutes 00:00:46 |
| 2023-10-04 | repeated | Hank says heat is a big part of the problem (not all: ocean acidification would not be helped) and is already making life harder, getting worse decade by decade for a while. | A Messy and Unhinged Introduction to Geoengineering 00:04:06 |
| 2025-07-25 | repeated | Asked whether we will escape the effects of climate change, Hank says no: we are experiencing them now and are past the point of no negative impacts. | The Molecule that Changed Everything 00:06:28 |
What is said about it
10 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says there are many tipping points ahead, but there will always be a spectrum of bad, and our future will be somewhere on it. — 00:01:40
- 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank says he does not know whether this will become a second apocalypse-level event caused by the same trees, and he does not like not knowing. (unsure) — 00:06:40
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank, though himself desperate for people to pay attention, doesn't think scary pitching ultimately works: it might get attention without action. (hedged) — 00:01:15
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank's third cause: we are bad at non-binary thinking; very bad is not the apocalypse, and humanity has always lived somewhere between utopia and apocalypse. — 00:01:27
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank's view of climate change, which he knows better than most big problems, gives him more hope for others: like crime, justice, racism or suffering, it has no binary fixed-or-broken state. — 00:01:50
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says there are billions of variables, and we all get to affect them as we move through life. — 00:02:08
- 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says a recipe he has seen work for others and himself, the 'pie and ice cream of activism', is care mixed with hope: hopeful, caring people get him to act. — 00:02:14
- 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Global warming, like almost every issue, is a justice issue: it will hit hardest those least responsible, while relatively affluent people in affluent places will be mostly okay. — 00:02:05
- 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Asked what to do, Hank says viewers should do a lot, around their other duties, because climate change is the most important and difficult issue humanity faces. — 00:02:26
- 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — recommendation: Hank: Personal steps: eat less or no meat, especially beef; avoid ever buying a gas-powered car; prefer smaller homes; skip gas stoves; live closer to work. — 00:02:42