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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]

#211

Post by RandomLensman »

johnea wrote: post #86
declan_roberts wrote: post #16

Weird. I used to worry about climate change and now I don’t. I guess the world has a way of finding its equilibrium. I do however worry about the accidental introduction of invasive species and diseases, which seems to be accelerating (see: citrus greening disease).

> Weird. I used to worry about climate change and now I don’t. That's funny! I was going to start my post with the exact same sentence! But for a totally different reason: I'm now convinced that there is no stopping the massive destruction of the natural environemnt. A much MUCH bigger problem than that of the climate alone. I'm not a "doomer", I'm a "realist". It's clear at this point that the world's ownership clas…

The "world's ownership class" has on average already set its sights on the wealth to be had in the energy transition. If you believe they are in charge, things will work out fine.

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

#212

Post by saati »

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…

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That's 4 billion years from now, in the meanwhile we could keep the planet livable and not on a course to venusian climate.

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

#213

Post by treflop »

kleiba wrote: post #156
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.

The whole Western world has shifted rightwards in recent years as can be witnessed in election results.

This is an unsupported shower thought but I suspect societies become more right when times are not as good.

You support immigration if you have a stable job and own a house but you don’t if you are getting laid off and aren’t sure what you next job will be.

And it seems most of Earth has lately been in a rougher place.

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

#214

Post by guyomes »

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 believe that overpopulation is the root of the sustainability crisis

This has been studied long time ago by scientists such as Alfred Sauvy [1], who concluded that overpopulation is not the cause of sustainability crisis, and that greenhouse gas is the major cause. In particular, limiting the growth of population has few impact on the production of greenhouse gas, whereas changing the means of energy production and consumption is much more impactful.

Moreover the world population is expected to be less than 12 billions in 2100 [2], which is plainly sustainable. This is mostly due to the demographic transition, a pattern observed in most countries, where the fertility rates decrease over time. More specifically I recommend the excellent book of Emmanuel Todd and Youssef Courbage on this subject [3]. The authors argue that in most countries throughout history, when both the majority of men and the majority of women know how to read and write, then the fertility rate decreases, and a revolution becomes imminent.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Sauvy

[2]: https://www.un.org/en/desa/world-population-projected-reach-...

[3]: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-convergence-of-civilizations...

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

#215

Post by matheusmoreira »

chii wrote: post #175
kleiba wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole Western world has shifted rightwards in recent years as can be witnessed in election results.

it's because the left has been attempting to make progress too fast, without regard to the people who lean towards the right as tho their point of view is universally regarded as being wrong. Reactionary politics is real, and the left ought to be more aware. Leaning towards left (aka progressive) is good, but if you're not paying a cost for it, someobody else is - and it's likely someone leaning right that's being fo…

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

#216

Post by julienreszka »

imtringued wrote: post #143
julienreszka wrote: post #108

I never worry because fear and anxiety shrinks the brain and makes you stupid. If you rely on intelligence for your work why would you ever allow something to make you anxious.

Why would anyone trust their survival instincts? They must be really dumb.

It's not a secret that propagandists hijack survival instincts for psychological manipulation:

  - emotional appeal
  - us/them
  - simplifications of complex issues
  - repetition and consistency
  - perceived threads
Don't let your primitive instincts take over

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

#217

Post by lozenge »

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.

Well, the bulk of them want more meat, washing machines and air conditioning.

The main increase of energy usage has been due to this, not people in urban areas eskewing apartments and public transport to drive cars and live in suburban houses.

https://youtu.be/6sqnptxlCcw?si=FfqAqooG9qg4kejC

Another fun fact: 80% of the world's population has never flown, and only 2-4% fly abroad in a year.

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

#218

Post by pvaldes »

PeterisP wrote: post #190
pvaldes wrote: post #159

Until the war is over, we can't know if exploding things non stop for two years is having a part in making the last years warmer. The models could be incomplete, or obsolete

We could measure the effect of historical wars which exploded a much, much larger quantity of explosives than any current conflict, and assume that the current impact isn't any larger than that. Like, the intensity of current wars isn't even comparable to that of WW1 or WW2 battles.

Or we can be smarter and understand that ecology does not work in absolute terms, most of the time all is relative and buffers are very important

The climate change can be expressed a the result of A+(B+C+D...) factors

Lets assume that A is some allegedly --hypothetical-- effect of the wars exploding bombs and releasing heat in the low atmosphere. If we claim that in World War II the value A was higher and nothing happened (So nothing will happen now), we are forgetting that the "everything else" part was much lower in WWII. Just the number of vehicles circulating was abysmally lower. This invalidates our guarantee, because all in ecology is relative to the current updated situation.

Ecosystems create buffers, the expect results are: not changes/very minor changes seen (buffer worked) or catastrophic change happens (buffer fell). Small amounts of energy released in one ecosystem could trigger noticeable effects in how the energy moves around the planet. As "how the energy moves around the planet" is too long, we created a shorter name for this: "Weather"

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

#219

Post by [deleted] »

jdietrich wrote: post #92
127361 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Encourage other people (especially if you're in a developing country) not to have too many children. The absolutely unsustainable population levels worldwide are behind the climate and pollution crises. We are an incredibly destructive species to the planet. All countries, developing and developed are part of the problem. Not only that the overcrowding and fighting over limited resources causes psychosocial stress, w…

A story in two charts: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-per-woman-un https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita

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

#220

Post by julienreszka »

speedgoose wrote: post #138
julienreszka wrote: post #108

I never worry because fear and anxiety shrinks the brain and makes you stupid. If you rely on intelligence for your work why would you ever allow something to make you anxious.

- "I’m anxious" - "Don’t be anxious" - …

> What is stoicism
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