warnings from the past weren't events caused by manmade CO2
Probably not 1.5C differences
sea level changes seem to be gradual enough that folks won't be drowning like a Tsunami
Agreed that past events weren't caused by manmade emissions of CO2. Obviously.
Past temperature swings were FAR beyond 1.5C tho. During ice ages global temps were colder by much more than 1.5C. During the Pliocene Epoch (~4M years ago, the last time CO2 was at/above 400 ppm) it's believed global temps were far more than 1.5C higher than today, and sea levels were 15-25m higher than today.
And a lot of things seem gradual, until they don't.
Hence my thought that we need to be thinking of best case scenarios and also considering worst case scenarios. If it's inevitable that the West Antarctic ice sheet will collapse, but it takes the 200+ years that we currently think it'll take, I'm not worried. If we're wrong and it happens over the course of 20 years, we're talking about massive dislocations of people that will disrupt much of our way of life to absorb.
I.e. Badge's great-great-great-grandkids not being able to live in Florida because it no longer exists might be sad. But if Badge's house is underwater in the next 20 years, and it's a 100% economic loss to Badge and his wife because he can't sell an asset that's literally, not economically, underwater? I think he'd consider that a catastrophe.