Over here (Belgium) in the second and third week of the (light) lockdown the color of the sky was a kind of warm blue I only remembered from childhood. I think it was due to the absence of daytime flights.
Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
101–110 of 283 posts
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#102This is why we need less humans on this planet. No one says that, because having as many kids as you like seems to be considered a basic human right. But imagine Earth with a stable 10% of our current population. Clean, abundant, and without the catastrophic extinction event already underway.
Which ones of your friends and family members should be culled? You get to keep 10%. Usually this argument boils down to "everyone I know and like should still be allowed to live, but we should totally get rid of billions of anonymous (poor) people"
This is pretty bad faith. It is very unlikely that you're responding to Hitler, of course no one is suggesting we murder 90% of the world's population, that is unspeakably evil.
But, with magic, imagine we had every technology we have now but with only 10% of the world's population. It _would_ be incredible, you could fly all over the world to your heart's content, your neighbor could buy a big diesel truck, and your friend could all the sushi they could ever want, and the world wouldn't notice. There would be immense open spaces, untouched, able to be enjoyed and the permanent residents, the plants and animals, wouldn't be perturbed.
That sounds pretty appealing to me, maybe it doesn't to you, but that is what someone is talking about, they aren't gleefully suggesting genocide. Now, how would we get there without magic? If I were king the first thing on my list would be educating children, specifically educated girls have many fewer and later children. Other things that drive birth rates down? Increasing quality of life, access to healthcare, and a strong social safety net, none of those things smells like bad things. I hope the next time someone suggests that you assume they mean doing those things over murder.
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#103Longer term Covid19 is very bad for public transport. People are gravitating back to owning their own germ free vehicles Time to buy a car? Industry hopes for coronavirus silver lining | Free to read https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26ed...
Though hopefully using them less, at least?
If you’re sufficiently worried about COVID to switch from public transport to a car, why would you use it to travel into an office every day?
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, F*ck :( Greedy human race Signed: bleeding coral reef with sad penguin
It's the tragedy of the commons. The only way to change it is for local/state/national governments to remove the tragedy.
But nowadays private interests can cross international borders with ease, while governments cannot.
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#105Longer term Covid19 is very bad for public transport. People are gravitating back to owning their own germ free vehicles Time to buy a car? Industry hopes for coronavirus silver lining | Free to read https://www.ft.com/content/488d5886-c6af-4e80-a479-36aca26ed...
I like how the car industry is hoping based on a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic response. Gives me no confidence for their long term future.
If people are getting by without a car now, I wouldn't think this situation would make them rush back into owning one. For one thing, if you don't have a job to go to, then you don't need one and probably have better things to spend your money on. And for another, and as a member of a 4-person, 2-car family, a car is expensive to buy, expensive to run day-to-day, and expensive to maintain, which is a reason some people have re-arranged their lives around not needing one. Thirdly, the purchase of a new (to the person, not necessarily brand new off the production line / ship) car, where I'm from anyway, is announcement-worthy; it's a date-on-the-calendar circling in red pen event. There's an excitement about the new 'you' that you're going to be seen as on the road. This gives the act of the purchase of a new car some intrinsic value and a bump in personal 'brand'; a dopamine hit. That whole schtick doesn't exist when you have to buy a fucking car to avoid a virus. It's a begrudging purchase, and all the expense that goes along with it will only increase the resentment of the requirement; the reminders of dealing with traffic, the hassle of getting petrol (not even necessarily the paying for it). All these will be reminders of why they avoided car ownership and will see them re-pursuing that option ASAFP.
If there is a bump in car ownership, as that article states is the case in China, then I'd be tipping there'll be a bump in second-hand car sales within 12 - 18 months.
I've been saying for the last five years that my next car will be electric. The last couple of years I'm questioning how I can arrange things so my next car is a bike, or my feet, or a scooter, or anything smaller, cheaper, and less hassle.
Something else to file under obvious, but not until you think about it: I donate plasma once a month or so, and in chatting to the people that work at the blood donation centre, they were saying that they now have too much blood, too many donors. With less traffic, there are far fewer major trauma incidents as a result of car crashes. Normally blood donation centres always need more. It's a good situation to be in, but also unfortunate because it's going to eventually settle back to where it was before. Traffic where I am is almost back to normal.
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
isn't the 70B of farm animals just a part of the "7.5B humans" problem? Anyway, i think that it is a crying shame that we're still farming animals instead of growing artificial meat. Once we finally have artificial meat and thus stop killing sentient beings, i think that would result in a great leap in our conscience, empathy, etc. - it will unleash a great deal of human mental development with natural results in soc…
We're consuming much more than we used to: https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production "The world now produces more than four times the quantity of meat as it did fifty years ago" "The average person in the world consumed around 43 kilograms of meat in 2014. This ranges from over 100kg in the US and Australia to only 5kg in India." "Meat consumption increases as the world is getting richer." When the earth has finite…
I suspect the alternatives will never be compelling to the masses (in, say, the US). To move the dial here, the price needs to reflect the cost.
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#107This is why we need less humans on this planet. No one says that, because having as many kids as you like seems to be considered a basic human right. But imagine Earth with a stable 10% of our current population. Clean, abundant, and without the catastrophic extinction event already underway.
Nature will take care of itself in the long run. It is adopting to reality and designing vehicles (ex: virus) that is getting closer and closer to optimal level of lethality to humans and it’s own survivability. Cold/flu viruses were not lethal enough anymore, Ebola was too lethal, SARS/MERS were with little more lethality, SARS2 with little more own survivability (likely, still to be known).
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#108In my early childhood, I remember Mt. Everest was visible from our hotel suite when we visited Kathmandu. It was 1998.
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
We're consuming much more than we used to: https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production "The world now produces more than four times the quantity of meat as it did fifty years ago" "The average person in the world consumed around 43 kilograms of meat in 2014. This ranges from over 100kg in the US and Australia to only 5kg in India." "Meat consumption increases as the world is getting richer." When the earth has finite…
I suspect the alternatives will never be compelling to the masses (in, say, the US). To move the dial here, the price needs to reflect the cost.
> To move the dial here, the price needs to reflect the cost.
If meat was priced at its true cost now and existing alternatives were fairly priced, would there be any need to wait for lab grown alternatives?
Wouldn't lab grown alternatives fail to make an impact when they arrive if meat was still heavily subsidised?
Re: Mount Everest is visible from Kathmandu for first time in living memory
#110Hm, is this actually true? According to this travel site, it was already possible before Corona? https://www.nestadventure.com/blog/mount-everest-from-kathma... "Contrary to everyone’s belief, Mount Everest can actually be seen from Kathmandu. The Chandragiri hills in Kathmandu offer a panoramic view of the Himalayan ranges and Mount Everest on a clear day. There are also viewpoints and hill stations just outside Kat…
The 'living memory' claim seems a bit far fetched, too. Let's pretend living memory means the last 100 years, that'd mean air pollution levels in 1920 wee so poor you couldn't see Everest from Kathmandu. I'm no expert, but I don't think Nepal and the surrounding area of China were industrialised at that time, and there definitely weren't many vehicles on the road at the time, so where would the air pollution have come from?