The species as a whole may adapt but at great cost to individuals and not in our life times.
Do you think there’s a credible threat to the ability to grow grains in Texas?
Have YOU read The Worst Hard Time?
Texas is a bit of a wild card as they get storms from the gulf, tornados, flash floods, ice storms, baseball sized hail storms and drought depending on where you go. It is already a place of extremes and I would surmise that anything that increases the extreme fluctuations would be hard on Texas. Cattle need feed to survive and if you can’t grow hay they starve and have to be sold off at a loss. Farming is such a dicey enterprise in the beat of times and less predictability makes it hard for farmers to invest and sustain during down years.
Same could be said for an earthquake/tsunami or volcanic eruption.
I worry more about global pandemics.
Forty percent of the food in America ends up in the trash now, so we’ve got quite a cushion before we will be impacted by reduced crops, etc.
Actually, dstark, per your example, in my case, I might come ahead. I lose my mortgage of well north of 1.0, and buy something really cheap in Spokane. Not as good of a view, but whatever. Of course, better yet to sell, get the cash out of it and buy something with no mortgage. At that point I still have a home, and no debt. But obviously better to get one’s cash and get a cheaper home.
However, my point was not to defend anything except to say that it’s better as far as conversation, to just be nice to people!!
The fact that the species isn’t going to go extinct from climate change doesn’t mean that climate change isn’t important.
The waste mostly comes from storage and logistical issues (such as a grocery store or restaurant doesn’t know how much business they’ll have, so they have to overestimate because there’s much more loss from telling customers they can’t have something than from throwing something unused away). These issues don’t suddenly get solved if there’s climate change that makes currently arable areas not arable.
A smaller portion of grains are wasted since they can be stored much longer.
Reading this thread gives me good insight into how different actual scientists who study the issue discuss the effects of global climate change vs how ordinary people perceive it. To be blunt, global warming will be disastrous for ALL regions of the country.
Much of the East Coast and Gulf will experience severe flooding. We’ve already started to see the effects of this, but every reputable climate change model shows a dramatic increase over the next fifty years. Look at what happened during Hurricane Sandy. Now imagine that Sandy was only considered a moderate storm. That’s what many of the models are predicting will happen over the next fifty years. Unless we plan on rebuilding Manhattan, Miami, Charleston, and a plethora of other cities somewhere in the Appalachians, a decidedly non feasible plan, the cities will have to be motivated to spend billions on flood protection systems similar to the ones currently used by the Netherlands. Also keep in mind that a huge number of civil engineering projects were based on an assumption of stochastic variables. That is to say the hydrological scientists who built things like bridges, dams, etc assumed that they could extrapolate things like 500 year flood frequencies based on previous years data. As scientists are increasingly coming to find, this was likely an incorrect assumption, particularly in areas which are predicted to have increased precipitation over the next few decades.
Much of the West relies on Colorado’s melting snowpack for its water. Unfortunately in the recent years the amount of snow has steadily decreased, causing severe water shortages in much of the intermonte West. Just look at California and how serious the drastically decreased snowmelt from the Sierra Nevadas has effected all aspects of life. Additionally, the decreased precipitation, increased range of tree destroying beetles, and other factors is causing a dramatic increase in the number of forest fires in the West Coast. While a certain amount of fire activity is necessary, combating such large scale fires can cost billions and if they are not contained, wreak havoc on cities.
Then there is the issue of the changing jet stream. Unfortunately I don’t have a meterologic background, so it is difficult for me to understand how it affects average global temperatures and climate characteristics, but I have been told by leading meteorologists at my university (ranked either #1 or 2 in the field) that in all likelihood the shifting patterns are causing more extreme climatic variations.
@busdriver11, really? I might have a deal for you then. A Really good deal for you. 
You have equity in your house, don’t you?
It is better to be nice.
^^Yeah, I’ll bet you have some swampland in Florida for me for a really good price, Alligators and snakes, included. 
Yes, I do get that you don’t want to lose that million dollars equity in your house, per your example. However, if one is forced to massively downsize and can purchase a home for a much cheaper price, after you take out all the costs of the mortgage and upkeep, it’s not so clear how much you lose. However, who wants to do that? If I want to move, I’d like to get the equity out of it.
I forgot my point. Oh yeah, the point was just to debate and inform in a friendly way. That’s the only point.
@busdriver11, Just let me know when you want to give up your house for the loan value so you can move some place where it is cheaper to live. 
I’ll find you people willing to sell their homes for what they have borrowed against it for a 5% finders fee on the loan amount if you want dstark. 
Ha!!! Fat chance. I’m just saying, as far as your example, that perhaps things look ugly when we look at one’s personal situation, but looking at the overall picture, without individualizing things, it may not look so bad. Which is what I believe the OP is looking at. Of course, when we apply it to ourselves, of course nobody wants to lose money, have to suffer, and move from where they choose to live.
Good luck finding people on that 5% finders fee, Vlad. Unless, of course, they are underwater!
Vlad, yeah… But I am talking specifically about busdriver11s house because she argued with me that might be a good deal for her.
I think people should be nice to each other and I want to be nice to her.
Let’s say I have $1 million in equity and my house is destroyed. No insurance. Some people think that is a good deal for me because I can move someplace else. I do have insurance. Maybe i will cancel my insurance and then burn my place down.
Vlad, let’s discuss.
Obviously they’d be underwater (on their mortgage). That’s the joke. Hell, I could just go to a bank, they’d happily give me 5% I bet if I could get someone to pay off the loan.
Washington state is in drought. Each year is drier than the next.
It impacts tourism. The fishing ndustry, recreation, agriculture.
Migrating birds, who keep the worlds agriculture moving, are losing habitat needed for migration.
Last summer we lost homes and lves because of record breaking wildfires.
This winter was much drier than the one before, and fire season has kicked off ahead of schedule.
Do some reading.
http://www.worldwithoutice.com
"I think people should be nice to each other and I want to be nice to her. "
Sure, but I know how difficult is is for you. One can only endure so much, right?
“Let’s say I have $1 million in equity and my house is destroyed. No insurance. Some people think that is a good deal for me because I can move someplace else. I do have insurance. Maybe i will cancel my insurance and then burn my place down.”
You would be an idiot to not have insurance. However, who knows if the insurance companies will consider global warming as an Act of God, that they won’t cover?
Isn’t that why there’s federal flood insurance?
@GMTplus7, otherwise known as “taxpayer subsidy of stupid/reckless people”.