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Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

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Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#301

Post by TheBeardKing »

jlokier wrote: post #212
_Microft wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, you just have reached the point that others haven't yet. Your carbon footprint is much lower than theirs for sure and trying to convince someone with a higher footprint to change will be vastly more efficient than trying to squeeze the last kilogram of carbon emission reduction out of your own life. Thanks for the effort by the way!

> Nope, you just have reached the point that others haven't yet. That might be true. But I'm under the impression that: - Flying is often said to be the biggest individual climate-harming action by individuals. - Most people, even in the West, are kind of poor and haven't flown anywhere in the last decade. - Most people, even in the West, don't have "investments" unless you count a measly pension they don't have much…

All good points. I'd like to see a study on estimated emissions by income quintile, as I would suspect strong correlation.

edit: I mean in the US. Global income vs carbon footprint is easy to find: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/10/CO2-emissions-by-...

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#302

Post by kmlx »

koonsolo wrote: post #204
kmlx wrote: post #151

Hopefully this will make us ditch the planet and finally look towards the stars. But I fear it will actually lead us towards an "Interstellar" future: where our inter-planetary progress is hampered by this single planet that we want to save.

Do you mean ditch most of the animals too? Because it seems highly unlikely what we're going to take even 1% of animal species into space.

we should not even consider taking any animals to space. let them be where they developed naturally. humans, on the other hand...

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#303

Post by twright »

dkarbayev wrote: post #279

One thing that I fail to wrap my mind around: aren’t all those corporations executives, politicians, and poachers living on the same planet Earth as all of us? Don’t they ever think that they’re actually destroying our planet and there’s no other place to live? I can imagine that they don’t believe pro-climate change people, but they could simply hire an independent group of researchers, don’t they? And I mean actual…

> Don’t they ever think that they’re actually destroying our planet and there’s no other place to live?

They might, but monetarily speaking, they can afford it. See: home protection via private firefighters [1], ability to buy citizenship in nations which will be less (only a little less) affected by rising surface temperatures [2], and of course more extreme prepper stuff [3].

[1]: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/priva...

[2]: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/silicon-valley-doomsday-p...

[3]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-...

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#304

Post by kmlx »

nulagrithom wrote: post #199
kmlx wrote: post #151

Hopefully this will make us ditch the planet and finally look towards the stars. But I fear it will actually lead us towards an "Interstellar" future: where our inter-planetary progress is hampered by this single planet that we want to save.

We're increasingly incapable of surviving on a planet that's perfectly suited to us. There's no chance we "look towards the stars" if we can't fix the ground.

there’s always going to be issues that need solving. but it’s these extremely conservative ideas that give me pause. we can’t solve everything. we need to go to the stars before another asteroid strikes and wipes us all out.

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#305

Post by kmlx »

kaybe wrote: post #270
inflatableDodo wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You can't migrate every person on the planet to another one. I completely agree, none of them are suitable. On the other hand, space habitats built from asteroids are a practical possibility. >"If the asteroids are ultimately used as the material resource for the building of new colonies, and if by constructing new colonies near asteroids relatively little reaction mass is wasted in transportation, the area of land…

We cannot damage the Earth enough for it to be a worse option than space habitats. We simply can't, even if we bomb all of the surface to oblivion, triple the amount of CO2 or even add more toxic gases.

any massive planetary destruction (like asteroid strike) will solve this for us.

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#306

Post by uhtred »

jniedrauer wrote: post #285
uhtred wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not go vegan? Sure, anything is better than nothing, but a vegan diet is best of all. Plus, dairy, especially when consumed as cheese, is worse than some meat in terms of environmental impact.

Going completely vegan is pretty difficult. You can get 95% of the way there with a pesco-vegetarian diet for half of the effort and cost.

Why is it difficult? If someone is still eating eggs, dairy and fish they are not 95% of the way to being vegan. And cost? What makes you think being vegan is more expensive than eating animal products?

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#307

Post by z0r »

dkarbayev wrote: post #279

One thing that I fail to wrap my mind around: aren’t all those corporations executives, politicians, and poachers living on the same planet Earth as all of us? Don’t they ever think that they’re actually destroying our planet and there’s no other place to live? I can imagine that they don’t believe pro-climate change people, but they could simply hire an independent group of researchers, don’t they? And I mean actual…

This isn't the outcome of just a small group of 'bad guys'. Extinction is a byproduct of the increased footprint of humankind as our populations and their associated demands grow. Climate change is one problem, but it isn't the full problem. For example, you need education (to reduce demand for poached goods), political and economic stability (to reduce conditions of poverty that make poaching a rewarding pursuit, or which might drive people to despoil the natural environment to survive in extreme conditions), and somehow a way to defuse the current engine that requires population growth to fuel economic growth.

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#308

Post by kmlx »

inflatableDodo wrote: post #184
kmlx wrote: post #151

Hopefully this will make us ditch the planet and finally look towards the stars. But I fear it will actually lead us towards an "Interstellar" future: where our inter-planetary progress is hampered by this single planet that we want to save.

Part of the reason I want to see massive populated orbitals and an economy develop in space is because I want to see this planet do better. We need a hope that isn't delineated by having a global government that enforces the number of children people have and having somewhere else to go is one of the long term solutions that could avoid this. We could also bet on everyone becoming socially responsible, but while peop…

completely agree. it needs to be done in parallel if we want any chance for survival.

Re: Up to one million species are on the verge of extinction, U.N. panel says

#310

Post by newnewpdro »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #43
perfunctory wrote: post #11

We keep hearing that individual actions don't matter and that we need a system change instead. I used to hold the same opinion for the very long time. However, since recently I started to turn around. For the last 30 years governments and politicians have proven incapable to do anything about global heating. What makes us think it will be any different in the coming years. Scientists keep producing report after repor…

I believe this is an incredibly dangerous attitude. Kudos that you're doing your part, and leading by example is important. However, systemic change is possible. We have numerous counter-examples: the UN, the Montreal protocol, free trade deals, et cetera. So why don't we have systemic change for climate change, because people like you and I let our politicians get away with it! If it was obvious to politicians that…

they're not mutually exclusive
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