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Produced by Huxiu Youth Culture Group

Author | Zha Zha County

In the past two years, technology has developed rapidly, and people are always saying that the future has arrived.

Although AI is quite powerful, it has been in a state of artificial intelligence for a long time. I still feel that we are still far away from the real cyber age, and I don’t think this can be considered the future.

What really makes me feel that the future has arrived is this damn weather.

When living in Beijing, I felt like I was living in Southeast Asia. I realized that the climate crisis I had heard about since childhood has arrived. According to the United Nations' popular saying, human civilization has entered an era of boiling water.

So, how should human beings survive in such a cruel era?

Since World War II, the world has entered a new stage, which Cold War scholar Gaddis called "The Long Peace".

People who grew up in this period have a vision of the world based on globalization, political reform, progressivism, environmental protection, and the promise of peace. In a nutshell, people believe that the contradictions and conflicts in human civilization will become less intense in the future, and that the future will be better and better.

But today, the towers and stone walls that support these values ​​are cracking and collapsing.

The global economic recession, supply chain crisis, and the wave of inflation brought about by it have made us bid farewell to the era of rapid growth. The myth of getting rich overnight has gradually become a distant memory, and the tragedy of personal financial anxiety and the dilemma of living costs has become the creative theme of the era.

Beneath the surface lies a deeper division: politics, gender and even aesthetics have become topics of online debate. The far-right subculture that was once ridiculed is now evolving into a cultural trend around the world, tearing society apart, sparking arguments, and even storming the White House, casting a shadow on constitutionalism.

In the view of some sociologists, the reason for this situation is not surprising. In the West, the economic downturn cycle, attacks on immigration issues and cultural conservatism are always the outlets for transferring these social pressures. In other countries, the situation is more complicated than that of the West. Their national emotions are integrated and they show a more aggressive attitude.

Zygmunt Bauman defines this era as the era of multiple crises, which literally means that people are running into a lot of trouble. However, even though the economic crisis and world conflicts have become so bad and difficult, optimistic political scientists still believe that these problems are just a minor cold in the development of human civilization. Although it is uncomfortable, we will eventually recover.

But no expert is optimistic about the climate crisis.

People always pay a lot of attention to politics, military and street movements, but rarely to the greenhouse effect and climate crisis. After all, the former is concrete and real, while the latter is distant and abstract. Sometimes such initiatives are also related to conspiracy and intrigue, which is really too boring.

But dismissiveness will not slow the pace of the climate crisis.

No data can compare to your own discomfort. The World Economic Forum's risk report defines the failure of international climate action as the most serious risk to humanity in the next decade.

When human beings encounter tough opponents in an era of multiple crises, how to adjust themselves to live in extreme times becomes an urgent issue.

2024 is a record-breaking year.

So far this year, at least 10 countries have recorded surface temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius, and climate historians report that 15 countries have broken temperature records so far this year.

This is not just the end of the crisis, but just the beginning, because according to climate experts, by 2050, more than 5 billion people around the world will experience extreme heat for one month every year.

If the above is not specific enough, I recommend you follow an account called @Extreme Temperatures Around The World. This account was created by a Costa Rican named @Herrera and is dedicated to publishing temperature records in various countries.

This account is quite convincing, and many of its findings are consistent with those of larger authorities and more timely. According to one of his recent tweets, he believes:

It is inevitable that the climate crisis will become part of human daily life in the future. It will pose unprecedented challenges to life and the economy, and humans are not yet fully prepared to deal with it.

The climate crisis is like the DLC you get when you play Civilization VI. Climate change is not a distant crisis, but a real problem.

Its impact on the economy cannot be ignored, here are some statistics:

Climate disasters caused economic losses to the United States of more than $23 billion in 2023, exceeding the previous record set in 2020.

Argentina suffered catastrophic inflation and economic contraction last year, partly due to a severe drought, and the International Monetary Fund predicts that the drought will cause the country's economy to shrink by 2.5% in 2023.

The impact of disasters on the economy is not only huge, but also increasing in intensity.

Globally, losses from each climate-related disaster have increased by an estimated 77% over the past 50 years.

A report from the World Economic Forum further proves the increasingly severe intensity of the climate crisis.

After studying data from 2000 to 2019, the organization found that in the past 20 years, the estimated losses caused by global extreme weather events have reached 2.8 trillion US dollars. If this number is presented from a more microscopic perspective, it means that the world will suffer an average loss of 16 million US dollars per hour.

And this figure will increase irreversibly. It is estimated that by 2050, the global losses caused by climate change will be between US$1.7 trillion and US$3.1 trillion per year.

Today, the global surface temperature is already 1.1°C higher than before industrialization. High temperatures cause reduced productivity, which in turn causes economic losses, and the end point of the losses is destruction.

According to research by the Oxford Economics Institute, by 2050, the temperature rise may reach 2.2°C, which will reduce the global GDP level by 20%. By 2100, if the warming reaches 5°C, it may lead to the economic destruction of human civilization.

More and more scholars have begun to study the specific impact of climate on the economy.

Some news shows the impact of abnormal climate on logistics and transportation. From the Rhine to the Yangtze River, due to the decrease in water volume, ships have to reduce the cargo load in order to pass smoothly. In this situation, more and more companies are beginning to consider other modes of transportation.

A report by Bangladeshi garment workers found that productivity dropped by 1.5% when the working environment temperature was above 25°C. In other countries, cases of outdoor workers fainting or even dying in the hot summer are sparking labor movements.

For example, after several couriers of the American express company UPS fainted or even died, they negotiated and reached a new contract with the UPS Workers Association, promising to increase wages in the next few years, and to install ventilation equipment such as air conditioners in vehicles and other working environments to improve treatment.

In terms of current labor rights alone, many companies are not prepared for the era of extreme climate.

But the reality of labor disputes, absenteeism, occupational diseases and declining productivity are forcing people to pay attention to labor rights in this turbulent era.

"Whether it is a factory owner or a president of an office building, operators must pay attention to labor welfare, whether it is increasing rest time, ventilation equipment or something else, and they must invest in these to maintain stable development." International consulting firm WGSN said in a report.

Reports indicate that young workers in North America are becoming a bridge between the climate movement and the labor movement

The climate crisis also presents new opportunities.

It's not just renewable energy and sustainable development that we're tired of hearing about, but industries such as clothing and real estate are also emphasizing the concept of climate crisis.

The climate crisis has changed people's lifestyles. In Dubai, night swimming has become a popular leisure activity to escape the hot daytime. Under the trend, the demand for night jobs, from lifeguards to waiters, is becoming more and more large.

The same thing is happening in the United States. As temperatures in major agricultural producing areas continue to rise, more and more farmers are harvesting in the middle of the night to ensure the quality of their crops, and sales of related night operation equipment are also increasing.

In more places, the concepts of night-time economy and night-time sports consumption have also been emphasized amid the climate crisis: in South Korea, night golf courses are becoming popular, and night tourism festivals have been held. In the West, from Amsterdam to London, governments have appointed "early morning mayors" to boost the night-time economy.

At the same time, more and more start-ups are beginning to join the climate crisis race.

After the American niche brand claudent launched clothing that protects against 98% UV rays, it has attracted market attention. At the same time, more and more brands are beginning to think about how to make functional clothing such as sunscreen more fashionable in extreme times. You can experience this by searching keywords on Xiaohongshu.

In the context of the climate crisis, human touch has also begun to be emphasized, and brands that take the lead in practice will always gain market attention.

For example, in 2022, the American beer company Coors launched an outdoor advertisement that can reflect sunlight. This advertisement can lower the indoor temperature and was called the savior of the cruel summer by American netizens at the time.

A concept that the media has been talking about a lot in the past two years is climate refugees.

It is said that by 2100, 1 billion people will migrate to other countries because they cannot stand the climate in their hometowns. India is of particular concern. Some experts predict that 600 million Indians will leave their homeland due to climate reasons.

Amid such fears, climate security is becoming a concept that is advertised in tourism and real estate.

For example, real estate sales in Duluth, Minnesota, USA, claimed in their advertisements that this is the city with the safest climate in the world, and also launched the slogan "By 2100, everyone will move to Duluth."

A 2023 online survey showed that 84% of young people (16-24 years old) worldwide are experiencing eco-anxiety. In the face of this collective emotion, the research organization gave brands and organizations new-age marketing advice on “reducing uncertainty and harm”.

But faced with such a crisis, it is hard not to admit that this is a hellish joke from another dimension.

After all, in the view of some sociologists, when living in an era of extreme climate has become a certainty for mankind, whether or not one can work indoors in the future will become a new way to distinguish social classes.

Although many of the horrific consequences of the climate crisis mentioned by experts are predictions, we can be sure from our daily lives that the prelude to past disaster movies has already arrived.

The future is here, and humanity knows almost nothing about its possibilities, nor is it positioned to deal with it.