Won't Global Warming mean a shift in wealth and power? Isn't that arguably a good thing?

Trickle down economics doesn’t work.

@talljasperman

My point exactly. It takes something more dramatic and astonishing.

Sounds nice, but the truth is that the rich will certainly abandon the losing emterprises with disdain while buying up all opportunities (as they are now) arising from the crisis. Just witness the world wide corporate onslaught on snapping up the world’s freshwater supplies.

This very issue is one of the prime reasons for the enforced secrecy involved in the crafting of the TPP.

That is a ridiculously simple way to look at the economic realities. It’s not going to happen, at least not on a large scale.

@hug_of_war

Well, that’s me alright. Ridiculous AND simple.

Global warming—better described as global climate change—can never be justified as a “good thing.” Yes, there may be parts of the world that will enjoy short-term economic and climatic advantage, but in the long run we can all probably kiss goodbye to a healthy anything on Planet Earth.

Even if economic benefits happened….I’d rather have an Earth that is ecologically livable and economically fucked up than the other way around.

Yeah, in some ways, massive death and destruction for civilized humanity will be a good thing. There are generally pros and cons to any situation, especially complex ones.

Sadly, catastrophic climate change would also affect heaps of innocents, many of them non-humans.

But nature is going to shred our delusional capitalist industrial greedbag society sooner or later, since our philosophy is unsustainable. The only questions are what will we do to mitigate the damage, and when, and how much death and destruction will result.

As @stanleybmanly said, the reality is the rich and powerful will just find new ways to exploit the new world situation. So if they once sold power to heat homes, they’ll invest in technology to cool. They’ll invest in solar or wind power technology. Those of us lucky enough to live in rich, first-world countries will also (if we’re lucky) have put in place technological protocols to ensure we don’t suffer too much. We can afford to put solar power on our roof. We can afford to establish technology to recycle water etc. We can buy land in countries that are likely to be less affected or positively affected by climate change.

Those in poor countries can’t afford to adopt technology that will help them manage the changes resulting from climate change. So they’ll continue to die of hunger, or heat exhaustion or whatever other effects climate change has.

No body is going to benefit in the way the oil industry or the food industry has historically. That is why they are all diversifying into renewable energy and why were are looking at less centralised, more traditional ways of feeding ourselves. It will not be in any way as dramatic as what you suggest. Only the super wealthy who are so blind as to not adapt to the changes will find themselves with their hand out, looking for governments to bail them out. Ironically.