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I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

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Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#201

Post by 127361 »

yungporko wrote: post #171
lacrimacida wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if it all grinds to a halt tomorrow, at this point it won’t make a difference anymore. It’s the end of an era, possibly of civilization too, at least this particular flavor of it.

it would make a huge difference. sure, we can't undo the damage that has been done, but things can and will get way, way worse as we carry on without changing anything.

The human species might have a built in self-destruct / self-limiting mechanism, which is world war, possibly nuclear war, which might end up saving the planet in the really long term?

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#202

Post by Cwizard »

vasco wrote: post #166
konschubert wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Im not dang but I would like to share a hypothesis why this maybe isn’t so terrible. The thing that always stood between the world and climate action was the fact that fossil fuels were the best energy source. Since a few years, the tables have turned and solar seems to be marching towards absolute dominance. So there isn’t much to do in terms of political climate action, since the incentives are now mostly economica…

[flagged]

> When you're dead 25 feels the same as a few million years from what I was told.

Not if you have children.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#203

Post by rat9988 »

mcny wrote: post #192
vasco wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

This is closer to paranoia than really concerns about the guy you answer. Million of years or billions don't matter much in the context of what he is saying, nor does it really serve his point. I see the mistake but not the malice. And I don't understand why you want to flag/ban.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#204

Post by junaru »

dagss wrote: post #124
127361 wrote: post #45

It's taboo to say this, but people worldwide have had far too many children, and I believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis, including climate change and pollution. And that taboo is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology, people have a genetically driven tendency to criticize those who advocate having less children? So could there be an instinctual drive behind it? https://www.flashpa…

I think there's 2 topics that need to be held apart here: 1) Limiting number of children in rich countries. This is what your links talk about I think. Yes, perhaps there is a taboo in place here. Is that relevant to sustainability crisis though? Population is already declining in rich countries, quite naturally. 2) Limiting number of children in poorer countries. Well, as in the article pointed to in a sibling comme…

> are you not saying that it may be better that 10 poor people are not born, than for rich people to do minor changes to their lifestyle?

I definitely would say that and would argue it needs to be way more than 10.

If you want to solve manmade climate change you need to solve the demand for goods that cause it. You lower demand by increasing the the supply (can't do that because that increases the emissions you try bringing down) or you increase its price making only the very rich able to afford it and delaying the problem for a decade till population catches up. We already see it with migrant crisis all over the west - both Europe and US.

You do this decade after decade, again and again each time creating more and more privileged cast that can afford it (current policy) and in essence pushing the rest of the civilisation further and further into poverty as they will never catch up and if they do - new legislation will bring them down again to mask the issue once more.

An example of that would be farmers in Europe protesting removal of diesel subsidies or just in general people being able to afford smaller and smaller cars due to taxation in Europe every year.

The problem with these "minor changes to their lifestyle" is that they need to accommodate exponentially growing population that already is a magnitude or more higher than persons who need to adjust.

We are talking about 90%+ reduction in what you call "minor changes" to achieve emission equilibrium to begin with and add that with exponentially growing population and its simply not feasible not due to lack of compassion from top percentile but because changes like these would completely anihilate the modern human civilisation and bringing it back hundreds of years.

As an example theres a very informative video on what happens to country and infrastructure when 4 million people join the power grid in a decade [1] Imagine that scaled to 4 billion and the extreme worldwide devastation.

Population control is the only way to solve climate change and it needs to be reduced everywhere but especially in the undeveloped nations as they have the most potential of bringing everything down.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiny1GrfhYM

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#205

Post by mcny »

vasco wrote: post #198
mcny wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Millions or billions of years after you're dead makes as much difference as 25, that is my point. As for the rest of your calling for banning, people can look at my history of more than 10 years of comments on HN and decide if it's fair to call for banning someone like this, lol.

Because these are the same talking points billionaires use to scare people with maybe twenty five dollars in cash accounts and no savings and people who have a couple million dollars into believing misinformation about taxes. Our taxes (in the US) are pretty low by any standard. Saying a billion dollars is "a few million" is disingenous. Nobody is arguing for higher taxes on everyone. Normally, I would believe someone is just a useful idiot (like I am most of the time) but you seemed too knowledgeable to be ignorant.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#206

Post by sanroot99 »

127361 wrote: post #45

It's taboo to say this, but people worldwide have had far too many children, and I believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis, including climate change and pollution. And that taboo is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology, people have a genetically driven tendency to criticize those who advocate having less children? So could there be an instinctual drive behind it? https://www.flashpa…

I think not having egalitarian destribution of resources is real problem rather then overpopulation. Becoz as we see very few have most carbon footprint.

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#207

Post by 127361 »

pk-protect-ai wrote: post #145

I no longer worry. I'm extremely pessimistic about the impending climate change. I believe Sabine isn't pessimistic enough about what to anticipate. Consider the tundra methane emissions and the explosive release of methane-hydrates from the oceans, along with water vapor, a potent greenhouse gas. The disaster looming over all ecosystems (a mass extinction event) that will happen in decades and the doom-phase could l…

This might just be the same thing as apocalyptic religious predictions, I think? But environmentalism this time?

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#208

Post by CalRobert »

vasco wrote: post #170
pk-protect-ai wrote: post #145

I no longer worry. I'm extremely pessimistic about the impending climate change. I believe Sabine isn't pessimistic enough about what to anticipate. Consider the tundra methane emissions and the explosive release of methane-hydrates from the oceans, along with water vapor, a potent greenhouse gas. The disaster looming over all ecosystems (a mass extinction event) that will happen in decades and the doom-phase could l…

I think extreme doomers like this create a shitty world to live in where you're surrounded by people that adopted an extreme "nothing matters the world is doomed soon" perspective that is depressing.

Ok, but are they wrong?

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#209

Post by throwaway2990 »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #131
127361 wrote: post #45

It's taboo to say this, but people worldwide have had far too many children, and I believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis, including climate change and pollution. And that taboo is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology, people have a genetically driven tendency to criticize those who advocate having less children? So could there be an instinctual drive behind it? https://www.flashpa…

The big problem is the way that people want US-style lifestyles with big houses and cars. This consumes way more energy than European or Asian style living in apartments with public transport. Overpopulation will solve itself as countries develop. We’ve seen that over and over.

> Asian style living in apartments with public transport.

^ clearly never visited Asia. LOL

Re: I used to not worry about climate change. Now I do [video]

#210

Post by CalRobert »

alexvoda wrote: post #140

@dang Is it just my impression that HN is drifting rigtwards on this topic? I remember HN being more in favour of proactive action against anthropic climate change. This thread feels dominated by attitudes reflecting inaction.

I notice a surprising unwillingness to consider that the situation may be, in fact, terrible, and the arguments are usually "well changing lifestyles is impractical" at though the current status quo is sustainable.
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