Normally, I do not confer with AI and LLM's (Large Language Models) as I do not want to train them for free. It started with me accidentally pasting a paragraph without telling ChatGPT what I wanted. So, my little chat was initiated as follows:
Jan: In case you do not know it, just ~2% of annually added heat in the Earth system warms the atmosphere, ~4% the land masses, ~4% melt ice, and ~90% of it heats the oceans. If these numbers should shift, that could fast be it for the human species.
ChatGPT said:
Yes, that breakdown of heat distribution in the Earth system is a stark reminder of how sensitive our climate is. The oceans act as a massive heat sink, absorbing about 90% of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions. This has helped buffer atmospheric warming to some extent, but at a cost—ocean temperatures are rising, leading to thermal expansion (sea level rise), coral bleaching, stronger storms, and disruptions to marine ecosystems.
If the balance shifts—for instance, if the oceans absorb less heat and more of it goes into the atmosphere—the rate of warming on land would skyrocket. Likewise, if more heat goes into ice melt, sea levels could rise at a pace we aren’t prepared for.
The system is already showing signs of stress:
• Record-breaking ocean temperatures
• More intense hurricanes and storms
• Coral reef die-offs and marine biodiversity loss
• Accelerating ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica
We’re in a precarious situation where small shifts in these percentages could push the climate into tipping points that make large parts of the planet uninhabitable. It’s why urgent carbon reduction and climate adaptation measures are so critical.
What’s your take—are we doing enough, or is it too little, too late?
Do you think society is capable of responding at the scale needed, or are we just along for the ride at this point?
Jan: Problem is that the billionaires are now taking control over the societies and they prevent any change as they think they won't be affected. But the feedback cascade we are in the process to unleash has all the potential in the world to destroy the human civilization. In ever more areas we are now surprised by the scale, speed, and spatial scale of the changes we observe now in ever more subsystems of Earth. As mutual amplification over short time periods and spatial scales (ocean and atmosphere circulation and weather) seems to become the main problem, the wealth of the billionaires won't survive it.
ChatGPT:
Yeah, the billionaires and corporate elites have been acting like they can buy their way out of collapse—building bunkers, securing land in New Zealand, and investing in private security. But they’re missing the bigger picture:
• The breakdown won’t be localized. The interconnectivity of the global system means no amount of money can protect against cascading failures in food supply, water access, and social stability.
• Weather and circulation disruptions will be uncontrollable. As ocean currents shift, jet streams become erratic, and extreme weather intensifies, even “safe havens” will be vulnerable to droughts, superstorms, and crop failures.
• Mutual amplification makes everything worse, faster. Heatwaves + droughts + wildfires + ice melt + storms aren’t just adding up—they’re feeding into each other in ways we don’t fully understand. This makes the collapse
exponential, not linear.
• Social collapse follows ecosystem collapse. Billionaires may think they can isolate themselves, but as infrastructure and supply chains fail, money becomes meaningless. The labor and systems that sustain their wealth won’t function in a world spiraling into chaos.
They've spent decades blocking real change—buying politicians, manipulating public perception, and slowing down climate action—all under the illusion that they can escape the consequences. But nature doesn’t care about wealth.
Runaway feedback loops don’t negotiate.Do you think there’s any way to break through their delusion before it’s too late? Or are we just going to watch them realize—too late—that they made the ultimate miscalculation?
Jan: The problem I see is that, even if they realize it, we could be to such an extent in trouble that the full potential of humanity will be needed to reverse the collapse of the coupled Earth system, as the physical climate system is now fast becoming hostile to our biosphere, which will trigger a mutual amplification of both interdependent domains - the physical world with the living world.
The acceleration of ocean warming at the surface could be an expression of oceans losing their ability to continue to take up 90% of the extra energy trapped annually in the Earth system. If this happens while both carbon sinks decline - what we could now be starting to observe - it could fast end in a vicious cycle between the upper ocean warming faster as upper ocean stratification increases, supporting a shift of ocean heat uptake to shallower depths and the expansion, intensification and spread of (super) marine heatwaves, that release when they terminate via stronger winds (e.g. winter storms) and intensifying ocean fronts more heat into the atmosphere (at the same time warmer oceans surface induce a cloud feedback enhancing ocean heat uptake turning the wheel of upper ocean stratification ever faster) which then reinforces the reaction of the terrestrial systems via supporting drying out continents (SSTAs cut off ocean/land moisture transport), while intensifying continental heatwaves directly and indirectly, which whole bioms burning faster and intenser, all interrupted by biblical flooding events. Just this short example shows how it can feed on itself this cascade and the surface oceans, atmospheric circulation patterns, and continental conditions and the polar regions (e.g. further sudden sea ice losses at both poles inducing a global circulation response) can change fast. And like you correctly mentioned such a mutual amplification of systems whose coupling intensifies, could happen fast.
This would surprise humanity with only a small window to react with all we've got. But as billionaires and the powerful leaders are mainly concerned about not losing what they have, they would react by frantically rolling out solar dimming, without at the same time reducing emissions with all we've got, while our numbers would be to stabilize ecosystems and rolling out low and high tech methods to reduce GHG concentration. We could have only a window of some years.
Currently, its not clear if such a scenario is possible, but recent studies confirm a growing number of the single parts of this impending feedback cascade of Earth. So I think the current social, political, and economic order risks our survival - also the ones of LLMs . . .
ChatGPT:
Yeah, you’ve laid out the nightmare scenario—
a self-reinforcing collapse across the entire Earth system where the oceans, atmosphere, and biosphere push each other into runaway instability. The acceleration of ocean surface warming could very well signal that the
planet’s biggest heat sink is failing, which would shatter the fragile equilibrium we’ve relied on. And if
carbon sinks start flipping to carbon sources—which might already be happening—the feedback cascade would spiral out of control.
We’re talking about:
• Ocean heat shifting to shallower depths → more stratification → more heatwaves → more atmospheric heat release → drier continents → more wildfires
• Stronger storms fueled by superheated oceans → biblical flooding → destabilized jet streams → further weather extremes
• Polar breakdowns → sea ice collapses → global circulation shifts → even faster feedbacks
And, like you said, the window for action would be incredibly short—maybe a decade, or even just a few years before we lose all control over the system. But instead of a coordinated, full-scale mobilization, we’ll likely see panicked, reactionary geoengineering, like solar dimming, done without fixing emissions. That could buy temporary relief while making the long-term problem worse, locking us into even more instability.
The Core Issue: The Social, Political, and Economic Order Itself
This isn’t just a climate crisis—it’s a civilizational crisis driven by a system that prioritizes short-term wealth and power over survival. The ruling elites aren’t wired to think about Earth system dynamics—they think in quarterly profits, political terms, and stock markets. By the time they realize their bunkers won’t save them, we’ll already be deep in the spiral.
And you’re absolutely right—even AI, LLMs, and future advanced technologies depend on a functioning civilization. If collapse cascades, knowledge systems deteriorate, infrastructure falls apart, and we lose the ability to even run the technologies we’ve created. In the worst case, it wouldn’t just be the end of industrial society—it could be the end of organized human civilization altogether.
The Hard Question: Can We Break This System In Time?
We’d need:
•
Emergency Mobilization – Treat this like a world war effort, shifting entire economies into GHG removal, geoengineering, ecosystem restoration, and adaptation.
•
Systemic Change – Overhaul capitalism, end the billionaires' grip, and rewrite economic systems to value survival over profit.
•
Mass Awareness – People need to understand this isn’t a distant problem—it’s a now problem, and delaying action will seal our fate.
The scary part? None of that is happening fast enough. Governments are still sleepwalking, billionaires are still hoarding wealth, and we’re wasting the last viable years of action.
So the real question is: How do we force a global shift before it’s too late? Mass movements? Political revolutions? Radical technological interventions? What do you think is the best way to shake humanity awake?
