Mole people, Walking Dead, Mermaids, Arks + Star Children vs Benign AI: A climate change future

Climate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer

The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate.

The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments.

Global carbon emissions are still rising and current policies will result in a rise in global temperature between 2.2C and 3.4C above pre-industrial levels. The damage at 3C will be so great that governments will be unable to provide financial bailouts and it will be impossible to adapt to many climate impacts, said Thallinger, who is also the chair of the German company’s investment board and was previously CEO of Allianz Investment Management.

The core business of the insurance industry is risk management and it has long taken the dangers of global heating very seriously. In recent reports, Aviva said extreme weather damages for the decade to 2023 hit $2tn, while GallagherRE said the figure was $400bn in 2024. Zurich said it was “essential” to hit net zero by 2050.

People simply don’t comprehend the speed nor the extent of the catastrophic climate change we are facing.

Part of that is straight up denial and part of it is overwhelming ignorance.

The tipping points we now face with fresh water melt from Greenland shutting down the oceanic pumps in the Labrador Sea threatens to turn off the AMOC which would impact billions while temperatures reach wet bulb temperatures and cause vast deaths from heat stroke.

Include never ending fires, coastal erosion plus the Doomsday Glacier and we have vast biosphere tipping points impossible to come back from.

I think climate change will get so bad that humanity will end up moving into very clearly defined groups.

Mole People: As the surface becomes more scorched, civilisations that can afford it will start building cities underground to shield people from the harsh conditions that will occur on the surface. Australia with its mining experience would be a perfect example of building cities underground and linking them with underground roads. Nuclear energy and underground food growing would be part of this set up along side heavily fortified entrances to stop the Walking Dead.

Walking Dead: Those who come from poorer societies without the capacity to build underground will end up as scavengers and marauders picking over anything that is left on the battlefield of surface life.

Mermaids: Same as Mole people but live in cities under the water.

Arks: There will be some places above surface that can still contain life (like NZ) these will end up being Arks constantly battling off wave after wave after wave of Walking Dead.

Star Children: For the uber rich orbiting space stations will provide the most beautiful First Family luxuries.

vs Benign SuperIntelligent AI: There is one hope to conquer climate change and that is Benign Super Intelligent AI that would have the power to strip CO2 and pollution from the planet at an atomic level and purify the planet. But that’s a pretty big if.

We can’t imagine the impact of catastrophic climate change, but we are about to learn the reality of it.

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