@Potemkin The public hysteria which enabled Bush to invade Iraq on a false pretext - on a lie - is being repeated again, but on a bigger scale. The human race is not facing extinction - we are facing not being able to live in the Middle East, not being able to use the internal combustion engine any more, and not being able to use disposable plastic for consumer items. I regard none if these things as a great loss. AGW is indeed a real thing, and must be addressed, but lies about our species facing extinction because of AGW are not helpful.
There you have it. The overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived have been pulled along by forces that they could not fully understand, did not care much for them as individuals and that they could not even begin to control. The "will of the people" has always been the will of a very few people. The very concept of civilization has always referred to the customs and desires of a relatively few people.
Henry V to Kate, Princess of France: O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great
kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined
within the weak list of a country’s fashion. We are
the makers of manners, Kate, and the liberty that
follows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults,
as I will do yours for upholding the nice fashion of
your country in denying me a kiss.
There will arise great kings. They always have. They will lead the rest of us to adopt the behaviors necessary to support their notion of "the way things ought to be". They will not much care how many of us die or are displaced in service to their ideas. But they will have ideas and strength to lead.
We the masses of humanity whether we live in a technologically advanced nation or in a stilted village in the depths of the rain forest have the weakest understanding of what "civilization" really means. It is, for most of us, manners. Little more. Customs and conveniences. As Potemkin says, we will adapt. At least the adaptable ones among us will. And this adaptation means that we will obey the wishes of those who offer us protection and food first and circuses later.
I agree that AGW is not an extinction event. It is a huge inconvenience. It will kill millions of people. Maybe a billion or two. Who knows? "Civilization" does not much care.
AGW will not be an event but a process. Most likely the advanced nations will do relatively well and the poor ones not so much. Always been that way. The US, for example, can build canals or decide not to grow subsistence crops in the driest parts of the country. We can build public transportation and even mount huge climate intervention programs.
That guy in the stilted hut, not so much. Maybe his technology free lifestyle will work, and maybe not. Islands and coastal areas will be inundated which will play old Harry with some cultures but not "civilization". It may be that the US "man on a horse" will be the one with the stones to stop the country from being overrun with refugees. Maybe the African man-on-a-horse will be the one who feeds at the point of a gun. Or doesn't feed at the point of a gun.
But "civilization" whatever that comes to mean, will still be there. There is nothing "uncivilized" about harsh and tyrannical leadership in times of crisis. It may be undesirable compared to what we have now but with the barbarians at the gate, having Attila at the head of your army is not a half bad thing.
We in the US are seeing a descent to violence already. We have a significant number of people who are already rallying to the banner of the autocrat. Maybe we
need them and maybe not. I suspect that they will prevail either way.
Finally. There will be no hunter gatherer regression. There is little to hunt or gather. There are three ways to get sufficient food to support any number of folks. First is to make more food. The second is to maximize the use of the resources you have. The third is to limit the number of people at the feeding trough. Care to guess which it will be?