climate change fears

OCD actually often follows cultural fears over time. In the 80's there was a bunch of HIV/AIDS fear and climate change ocd was unheard of. Now HIV is almost curable and the rates of HIV ocd have dropped whereas climate change ocd cases have increased significantly in recent years.

But, the way I look at climate change is this (as you say "what's the point").

What is it that you value in terms of climate change? You state it's because "we only have one planet" and therefore if this one is unsuitable to our species we will not have a backup to go to, but we as human's are a very adaptable species. What if we were to still use unfettered amounts of fossil fuels but reached the technological level that a rising climate didn't matter to our species? Would that be acceptable even if it meant the a bunch of other species died out and there were less "wild" places?

You are probably saying that second stipulation is unacceptable as well to which I also ask "Why?" Is it the sanctity of life as a whole that you value and its capacity to create the diverse ever-evolving world we live in? If so, a mass extinction should be viewed as a positive, as it is actually from mass extinctions that species evolve. Over the course of our planets history life has become more diverse over time with the most diversity occurring soon after mass extinctions. A mass extinction event essentially thins the crowd to only the most hardy species that then quickly re-evolve to fill the niches left from the recently extincted organisms (think the proliferation of mammals after the dinosaur extinction event or the proliferation of aerobic organisms after the oxygen crisis extinction). In this light a mass extinction would be a good thing, as it would further allow for life to evolve and continue on the trend that has been happening since lifes inception.

However, you might say that this scenario is still not a good thing and that perhaps a world where the current state of speciation is simply preserved along with humanity would be best. This is most people's innate urge, as they are essentially averse to change. However, there is one issue with this scenario and that is the fact that the significant growth of the human population is a natural catalyst for an extinction event (extinctions often occur when a one species is too successful). Therefore, what do you do about overpopulation? In an ecological setting population management is usually done through culling or physically reducing the current numbers of the species through death or forced castration. This, however does not seem like something that will occur or should be supported lest someone be ok with mass genocide. Therefore, in my opinion, take option two....realize life as we know it on this earth is bigger than either of us, and that life will continue on long after us.

/r/OCD Thread