A recent study predicts that Northern Europe will be covered by a thick layer of ice in a hundred years. The researcher tells how the Finns would survive.
The latest study published in the journal Science heralds freezing times for northern Europe. According to the study, the Amoc current that warms Europe will freeze in a hundred years, and as a result, Finland along with the rest of northern Europe will be buried under the ice.
This dark vision raises the question: how will the people of northern Europe adapt to the challenges of the future, or will we become climate refugees?
The results of the recent study do not surprise future researcher Risto Lintur. He sees humanity as above all adaptable, and for that reason he does not consider, for example, Finland to be uninhabitable in the future.
– If there are people who plan to live on Mars, then yes, this is still a better option, Linturi sums up.
The Amoc current transports heat to northern Europe allowing for milder weather. If, according to the forecasts, the flow freezes or even stops, the temperatures in the area may drop by 10–20 degrees. In winter, temperatures may drop as low as 35 degrees in some places.
Even though Finns are used to cold, freezing winters, the changes can be really harsh. Linturi presents possible options for the future of the north.
Life can move underground
According to Lintur, for example, lowering the temperature by ten degrees would not necessarily affect whether it would be possible to live in Finland in a hundred years.
– Even today, a large number of people spend almost all of their time indoors. In the cold, many people don’t show their noses outside the door, Linturi commented.
As a result of the earth freezing, people could move to live underground. If the air cools down a lot, according to Lintur, life can be modified in such a way that you don’t have to go out lazily. Houses can be learned to insulate even better, or they could also be built underground.
– More passageways should also be built in covered indoor spaces and underground.
It is practically possible to replace the windows with virtual windows. Even now, the best LED screens may be better than a dirty exterior window. It is also possible to develop the virtual window in such a way that it detects where the viewer’s eye is directed.
– The virtual window can change the perspective so that my eyes could artificially look through it. Of course, there is a small challenge if there are several people looking through the window. According to whom the landscape is directed and whether others will feel bad, Linturi laughs.
Even the window is no longer a problem if aero glasses become more common. In Lintur’s words, everything looks pretty and summery with aero glasses on.
The story continues after the picture.
The graphic shows changes in weather conditions.
The development of technology is accelerating
According to Lintur, anything can happen in a hundred years – including in the field of technology.
– Many things develop here along the way. In the future, people may just as well be chained to coffins in which they only think they are moving.
During the last hundred years, the development of technology has radically changed the world. A person no longer needs to know how to sew clothes, cook, let alone farm. These were commonplace for many a hundred years ago.
– The current pace of technological development – it’s so fast. A hundred years from now we will be much further than what the current theoretical maximum implies, Linturi thinks.
Indoor cultivation
In the future, arable farming will remain a thing of the past in Finland. Linturi sees agriculture moving indoors and underground, where robots would be responsible for various indoor and layered crops. If Finland is 10–20 degrees colder in a hundred years, it may also be the only option.
– If it’s cold on the surface of the earth, the temperature below the earth remains at best at summer temperatures. Layer cultivation enables a closed cycle, which does not result in any manure emissions or similar agricultural emissions.
Lintur’s theory makes it possible to localize food production, which also reduces transportation costs. If the robots deliver the food, the messengers don’t even need to be outside. The food also comes fresh every day.
– I calculated that scenario and concluded that it makes sense in terms of energy technology. As long as the machines and production methods are cheap enough, energy costs or anything like that won’t be a problem. In any case, I believe that we are gradually moving towards indoor farming.
The story continues after the picture.
In the future, ice skating may be only a distant memory of the past for Finns. Antti Mustonen
Artificial intelligence the biggest threat?
Although predictions about weather changes are gloomy, Linturi sees opportunities to adapt to the changes with the help of technological development.
Linturi also raises as an option that the clothes of the future might be made of material that enables movement even in freezing cold.
– How do you know that, even if the clothes of the future are made of graphene or similar. There can be a thin film on top that insulates and warms.
Artificial intelligence is a great opportunity for the future, but there is also a threat in its development: According to Lintur, there could be as much as a ten percent chance that artificial intelligence will wipe humanity off the world map.
– If the machine fulfills all needs, such people will become extinct. Those who need each other remain, Linturi reasons.
– Artificial intelligence will make people redundant in many ways. If an individual’s purpose is in other than interpersonal relationships, that’s where he goes crazy.
Saving is not the solution
The more renewable forms of energy are used, the more they are produced and their prices fall. When the price of renewable forms of energy permanently falls below the operating costs of fossils, the production of fossil forms of energy is closed.
Many are also looking for a solution to the current state of the world through saving.
– If we use half as much of everything, we will progress to the climate catastrophe half as slowly. That’s not our goal.
In Lintur’s opinion, making life miserable is not a solution.
Although Linturi can paint several alternative futures a hundred years from now, he doesn’t actually hope for any of them to happen.
Circular economy future?
Solar and wind energy are examples of the circular economy, which Linturi believes is part of the future. A technology-oriented future may also mean the end of capitalism.
– Free and emission-free forms of energy and renewable raw materials change the spirit of the game.
Part of that utopia is also artificial intelligence, and how it can develop itself to such an extent that it is possible to solve all of humanity’s most pressing problems, such as diseases.
It is still possible to prevent the freezing of Northern Europe. According to Lintur, the only thing holding back the utopia of the future is whether the utopia in question will be completed in time.
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