November 5, 2025
From doom to duh: comment wars
I Stopped Being a Climate Catastrophist
Author dials back climate doom; the internet cranks up the chaos
TLDR: Ted Nordhaus says climate risks aren’t apocalyptic—more like 3 degrees of warming and 2–3 feet of sea rise. Commenters split hard: some welcome calmer analysis, others call it dangerous minimization, while memes roast an AI hero image that misspelled “climate,” turning a serious topic into a spicy spectacle.
Ted Nordhaus just stepped away from full-on climate doomsaying, arguing worst-case warming by 2100 looks more like ~3 degrees and sea levels rising 2–3 feet—not the total societal collapse he once warned about. Cue the comment brawl. Team Calm Down cheered the cooler tone, with one reader saying they’re starved for “measured, objective” takes after decades of panic headlines. Another dropped a nod to Bill Gates’s own realism in Three Tough Truths, hinting the vibe shift isn’t just a one-off.
But Team Panic Button came in hot. One outraged commenter blasted, “What is this author smoking?” and argued 2–3 feet of sea rise is still “absolutely catastrophic.” Others warned we’ve already seen about 1 degree in two decades and asked why play down risks now. Meanwhile, a meta take stirred the pot: “Your reaction doesn’t matter; only the collective response,” drawing the debate into politics and power. And because the internet can’t resist, the AI (artificial intelligence) hero image apparently misspelled “climate,” sparking jokes that the article’s caution might be less convincing if even the artwork forgot the topic. Bottom line: Nordhaus cooled the forecast, but the comments heated up—facts vs feelings vs typos, and everyone’s got receipts.
Key Points
- •Nordhaus revisits and revises earlier catastrophic claims from his 2007 book, acknowledging continued warming and sea level rise but disputing other dire outcomes.
- •He argues the earlier ~5°C by 2100 business-as-usual scenario was never plausible due to unrealistic assumptions about population, growth, and technology.
- •Current worst-case warming estimates are now around 3°C or less, according to analyses cited by Nordhaus.
- •Nordhaus states there is no observed global increase in meteorological drought and deems Amazon collapse within 50 years unlikely.
- •Per capita mortality from climate/weather extremes has fallen dramatically, with recent data suggesting record-low climate-related mortality.