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Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

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Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#131
post #38

Yes, let's die out! Let's not even let any kid get born that may invent the key to nuclear fusion. Sure, let's just choose some non-sentient animals and plants over ourselves killing any chance of betterment right here and now. Let's not even try to spread out over the stars, let's make sure that any life on our current planet dies as soon as this planet dies instead of taking it with us across the barren ocean that…

I seriously wrestled with whether having kids was moral. Indeed, it seems highly probable that they will just grow up to witness and suffer in the next great extinction event.

Seriously? Do you know what the earth has seen? How climate has been in the past? What we have survived? We are here because we are the culmination of an unbroken line of winners. But it seems your line is about to end because you seem to see it so much better than all your predecessors. This truly is the end time, wat a coincidence you will live to see it.

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#132
post #85

Former political staffer here to remind HN that this is political attention getting, period, and not intended to be a sincere proposal from AOC. In politics donations (money) is e v e r y t h i n g and if your policies divert from typical donor interests then you have say things like this to expand and activate your donor base. This kind of signaling occurs across the political spectrum.

This kind of signaling occurs across the political spectrum.

Which doesn't justify her doing it, and thus should be shamed because of it.

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusianism So: yes. Many times. In fact it would be accurate to say that a portion of the population has believed this, now for hundreds of years.

Malthus lived in the 1700s. The 1970s neo-malthusianism (Limits to Growth, Club of Rome etc) didn't predict apocalypse in 25, rather "Given business as usual, i.e., no changes to historical growth trends, the limits to growth on earth would become evident by 2072" [1]. But they did indeed think population growth was a major problem and they were right of course. The neomalthusian ideas didn't you should have no kids,…

Well, sure, but Malthusianism has had many famous dates. Wasn't the first one 1870 ?

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously wrestled with whether having kids was moral. Indeed, it seems highly probable that they will just grow up to witness and suffer in the next great extinction event.

Seriously? Do you know what the earth has seen? How climate has been in the past? What we have survived? We are here because we are the culmination of an unbroken line of winners. But it seems your line is about to end because you seem to see it so much better than all your predecessors. This truly is the end time, wat a coincidence you will live to see it.

There already were plenty of "unbroken lines of winners" that eventually got broken.

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#135

I’ve always believed that if you’re a smart, educated, motivated person (if your reading this than I’m assuming you are one) that probably the best thing you can do for the world is to have kids. Those kids will likely contribute to the world in all sorts of ways that we can’t imagine.

Yet the opposite is true, meaning that less educated people usually have more kids than vice-versa.

Hans Rosling actually talked about this, that a way of stopping over population is by investing more in education in poorer areas.

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously wrestled with whether having kids was moral. Indeed, it seems highly probable that they will just grow up to witness and suffer in the next great extinction event.

Seriously? Do you know what the earth has seen? How climate has been in the past? What we have survived? We are here because we are the culmination of an unbroken line of winners. But it seems your line is about to end because you seem to see it so much better than all your predecessors. This truly is the end time, wat a coincidence you will live to see it.

I echo your sentiment. And I am mostly of the same opinion of you. It's just... if you look on a long enough timeline, there is no way that the humanity will not end in a dramatic and sad way. Preferably very very far in the future, but not necessarily.

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? Do you know what the earth has seen? How climate has been in the past? What we have survived? We are here because we are the culmination of an unbroken line of winners. But it seems your line is about to end because you seem to see it so much better than all your predecessors. This truly is the end time, wat a coincidence you will live to see it.

I echo your sentiment. And I am mostly of the same opinion of you. It's just... if you look on a long enough timeline, there is no way that the humanity will not end in a dramatic and sad way. Preferably very very far in the future, but not necessarily.

You mean your great ... great grand kids will die in-silico while black hole farming the last black holes about 10^53 years after the last stars die out? ;) [0] Would we still call that humanity?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g

Re: Is it still ok to have kids in face of climate change?

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seriously wrestled with whether having kids was moral. Indeed, it seems highly probable that they will just grow up to witness and suffer in the next great extinction event.

Seriously? Do you know what the earth has seen? How climate has been in the past? What we have survived? We are here because we are the culmination of an unbroken line of winners. But it seems your line is about to end because you seem to see it so much better than all your predecessors. This truly is the end time, wat a coincidence you will live to see it.

Your reply could be more civil.

Many scientists warn that we are probably in one of the great extinction events. It's happened before, and past success is no guarantee of future success. I might add that our ancestors didn't have an abundance of nukes either.

I know a lot of what the Earth has seen. Huge glaciers, global hypoxia, mass extinctions, cataclysmic events...

your response ignores fact that there never has been 4.5 billion Homo sapiens sapiens living all at once before. What a coincidence that I should be here to see it!

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