US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter • Hacker News Board

Re: US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter

#21

Post by runarberg » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 1:42 AM UTC

Fjolsvith wrote: post #20

runarberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have a sample size of one. We’ve tried global capitalism once, and combined with a global industrial revolution we’ve so far increased the global average temperature by a whole degree celsius[1]. 1: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/...

Ah, that's good. We've got a bit of leeway before we reach boiling point.

Indeed. While the industrial revolution is kind of irreversible, global capitalism isn’t. Logic dictates we use this leeway to reverse global capitalism.

Re: US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter

#22

Post by sdinsn » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 5:57 PM UTC

runarberg wrote: post #18

sdinsn wrote: post #14

The DoD is the world's largest employer. Unsurprisingly, they are the largest polluter. That doesn't make them hypocrites automatically.

I fail to see a causal relationship between employment and carbon emissions?

How do you fail to see that?

More employees = More buildings, More work, More everything, etc.

"I fail to see a casual relation between city size and carbon emissions. Why does New York City have higher emissions than McMullen, Alabama?"

Re: US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter

#23

Post by runarberg » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 9:22 PM UTC

sdinsn wrote: post #22

runarberg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see a causal relationship between employment and carbon emissions?

How do you fail to see that? More employees = More buildings, More work, More everything, etc. "I fail to see a casual relation between city size and carbon emissions. Why does New York City have higher emissions than McMullen, Alabama?"

I mean the causation could very well be reverse (more building require more employees etc.)

It could also be from a third factor (population growth demands more work and more infrastructure which leads to more carbon emissions).

I’m not denying the correlation as it exists today (bigger employers probably emit more carbon into the atmosphere; or at least intuitively; I haven’t looked at the data), but that correlation is by no means neither necessary (you could theoretically employ a lot of people without having any carbon emissions) nor sufficient (you can be a very large polluter with only robots doing all the work; like a big automatic aluminum smelter).

Re: US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter

#24

Post by Fjolsvith » Tue, Jun 18, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

runarberg wrote: post #21

Fjolsvith wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, that's good. We've got a bit of leeway before we reach boiling point.

Indeed. While the industrial revolution is kind of irreversible, global capitalism isn’t. Logic dictates we use this leeway to reverse global capitalism.

I kinda figured we'd find a cure for cancer so that we could survive the cancer-causing air-particulate matter from hot climate change.

Re: US military is terrified of climate change – but is the world's biggest polluter

#25

Post by IXxXI » Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 7:29 AM UTC

China contains 14 of the top 30 most polluted cities on the planet. China is constructing new coal power plants, while the united states closes down more coal plants every year. There's a weird thing going on in the news where real polluters like china get a free pass to destroy the earth and the environment and light polluters like the united states are harshly criticized for running operations in a more environmentally friendly manner.