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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]

#781

Post by bicx »

CalRobert wrote: post #752
vegetablepotpie wrote: post #566

You can do something about this. I got involved in climate advocacy in 2021. Since then I’ve successfully lobbied my local government to start an energy resources study, which will look at ways for my community to quickly transition to renewables. A small thing. But if we all do small things, it will add up! Still though. My state, Arizona has really terrible people writing awful laws. This legislative session they’r…

Arizona is also the unlikely home of culdesac.com, one of the first purpose-built car-free neighborhoods in the US.

There’s a lot of dead space in Arizona. I’m sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert right now.

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

#782

Post by strken »

jdthedisciple wrote: post #539
strken wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't care about useless gadgets and GDP. I care about people poking around in the Mariana Trench, surveying carnivorous snails, writing and reading novels, and keeping their societies functioning and happy. Please don't damn me for opinions I don't actually hold. Regarding the superiority of worldviews, sure, subjectivity applies and we could go down the rabbit hole of discussing that - but the comment I was reply…

> Mariana Trench I mean, you might as well quote me a list of your very personal niche hobbies and the importance of keeping them up as some kind of tradition humanity needs to uphold. I don't think such a line of argument holds very tight in the grand scheme of things. To others, enjoying the company of their own children and grandchildren (some of the most commonly shared joys across people, in contrast to niche in…

Okay. So? I wasn't telling you to change your values, but explaining to someone else why my own aren't internally inconsistent.

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

#783

Post by naasking »

PeterisP wrote: post #714
naasking wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is naive. It's not the absolute temperature that's the problem, it's the rate of change. Temperature is going to change faster than most species can adapt, and that's why the food chain could collapse in the worst case.

What "the food chain"? IMHO there are many relatively disconnected food chains. There are many natural ecosystems which could and would be severely disrupted as the food chains there break up. However, the food chain for homo sapiens largely relies on artificial monocultures that can be moved around and replaced on a large scale if the local conditions change. Natural environment can't switch to a "warmer climate bio…

> However, the food chain for homo sapiens largely relies on artificial monocultures that can be moved around and replaced

As just one example, ocean acidification could kill a lot of the algae. Pretty much everything is upstream of algae. It would be catastrophic, even for us.

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

#784

Post by RankingMember »

timschmidt wrote: post #416
defrost wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh good, we don't ever need any more then. /s Always handy, the point (lean back, look up) is we don't need 80 billion as a prerequisite to have more - that's a weak (to be generous) argument. > I doubt there's any single ideal population size, .. It's bounded by an upper limit of humans living like turkeys in a turkey farm and tossing the weak in the chipper to blend back in with the feed . . . is that your ideal…

> we don't need 80 billion as a prerequisite to have more Your claim, unproven. My point is that 80 billions souls will produce 80 billions souls worth of art, science, literature, and culture. Which sounds divine. Why would you be opposed to such a thing if it can be accomplished sustainably? > It's bounded by an upper limit of humans living like turkeys in a turkey farm and tossing the weak in the chipper to blend…

> My point is that 80 billions souls will produce 80 billions souls worth of art, science, literature, and culture. Which sounds divine.

This sounds like magical thinking. Even making the huge leap to say that cultural output would somehow scale commensurate with population infinitely, what does that actually look like in a reality with finite time and attention? I think we've already passed the point where anyone can keep up with all the cultural output (music, literature, graphical media) that is released each day. This idea of a cultural smorgasbord where we all get to sit back and enjoy a buffet of art is a dream that can only exist in the most idealistic of vaccuums.

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

#785

Post by PeterisP »

naasking wrote: post #783
PeterisP wrote: post #714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What "the food chain"? IMHO there are many relatively disconnected food chains. There are many natural ecosystems which could and would be severely disrupted as the food chains there break up. However, the food chain for homo sapiens largely relies on artificial monocultures that can be moved around and replaced on a large scale if the local conditions change. Natural environment can't switch to a "warmer climate bio…

> However, the food chain for homo sapiens largely relies on artificial monocultures that can be moved around and replaced As just one example, ocean acidification could kill a lot of the algae. Pretty much everything is upstream of algae. It would be catastrophic, even for us.

Are cereals, tubers and legumes upstream of algae? They are "pretty much everything* as far as food security is concerned, they constitute 90% of calories consumed by humanity; the three main species - rice, maize, and wheat - currently form 2/3 and in case of a catastrophe probably could cover nearly 100%.

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

#786

Post by RankingMember »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #239
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…

> And that taboo is probably rooted in evolutionary psychology No. It's because it inevitably puts you in the position of deciding who gets to have children while the rest are denied such privileges for the good of the species. In other words, eugenics.

When I think of reducing the population I think simply of making birth control universally free and public information campaigns about the environmental cost of more humans. Nothing more than that, and that'd honestly be a huge step in a country where large swaths support abstinence-only sex education.

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

#787

Post by RankingMember »

ephemeral-life wrote: post #283
sgt101 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From my observations the current rightwing meme is that women in rich countries haven't had sufficient numbers of children and measures to drive increased population should be put in place. This is congruent with removing women's bodily autonomy, banning abortion and banning or restricting birth control of all types.

I have never in my life seen or heard anyone advocating for less use of birth control. This might be an N=1 scenario, but my bullshit'o-meter is tingling a bit. The people I know on the right have nothing against birth control. They are just against abortion exept for exceptional circuimstances, because by that point the relevant parties had their chance with birth control. To them, abortion shouldn't be an escape ha…

As someone who grew up Catholic, I think you might need to get your bullshit'o-meter recalibrated

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

#788

Post by jes5199 »

9dev wrote: post #762
jes5199 wrote: post #709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

precision fermentation and lab-grown meat both exhibit cost curves analogous to Moore’s Law. within the next ten years, they’ll outcompete animal products in many situations. the first domino to fall will be milk-extracts used in processed food products, see startups like “Remilk”

Last time I read up on this topic, there were numerous issues that made mass production of vat meat just plain unable to compete with animal meat. Has that really changed?

it’s really about price and the technological learning curve. Currently it’s expensive, but that won’t be true forever

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

#789

Post by wredue »

t0bia_s wrote: post #726
wredue wrote: post #696

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know because it’s measurable. You. Literally YOU. Can trivially measure the impact of different gases on temperature. Telling the difference between natural and human produced is probably not doable by you personally, however, human burned pollution tends to have different atomic markers from naturally occurring. We have mandatory pollution reporting. We can do basic maths to find reasonably close numbers to how m…

Yet you don't know nothing, you believe in catastrophic scenarios. We can measure anecdotaly that temperature is slightly rising. The reason why is it happening and happend in history multiple times is topic for debate that we can explore. However your tone is not open for debate and use exactly same words as those you fight against.

It is not “up for debate” that various gasses cause a rise in temperature.

You are pretending that our scientific knowledge is at 1600 levels to come to your insane conclusions.

You claim that I’m not open for debate, but it’s actually just that there is no debate here. You’re a just printing demonstrable lies on to the internet, for what?

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

#790

Post by CatWChainsaw »

CalRobert wrote: post #210
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.

It's not surprising. The average demographic of this site is a laptop-class worker whose work and passion is only made possible by a nearly incomprehensible foundation of thousands of years of infrastructure to build off of, who lives very comfortably, fancying themselves humanity's pioneers and dreaming of a singularity within their lifetimes. They've been told it's inexorable, so they think they're entitled to it. Snatching not only that dream away but their entire set of assumptions about how this civilization can't possibly collapse (even though many have in the past) because we're more enlightened or something? Literally can't compute, won't compute.
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