He is mentioning geologic hydrogen as a new energy source. Surely that is a fossil fuel?
Tough truths about climate
21–30 of 131 posts
Re: Tough truths about climate
#22> Although climate change will have serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries—it will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future. Interesting and different perspective vs. what many others often say (but that’s one of the points he’s making). I feel a lot of climate articles — and the comments attached to their H…
Depends on where you are in the world. For the developed world, climate change will be annoying but not serious. The US may have to give up on Miami and New Orleans, and build seawalls for New York. Some crops may have to be grown further north. Some irrigation systems will need upgrades. More power will be needed for air conditioning. Those will not seriously damage a society. After all, right now the biggest proble…
> For the developed world, climate change will be annoying but not serious.
Spillover of problems like mass migration away from the equator and increase in conflicts.
Re: Tough truths about climate
#23The important thing to remember is that some of those bad parts where people will die from heat have nukes. Like Pakistan [0].
Re: Tough truths about climate
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
He says that as if he's certain it can't possibly, even a remote possibility, lead to societal collapse. First, there is no way he can be certain about that. Second, what is an acceptable probability for an existential threat? That's the real question to answer, and he didn't attempt to answer it.
There is a non-zero possibility of Taylor Swift causing societal collapse. That's not a reason to take such a scenario seriously.
Non-zero describes the chance of everything, sure. Infinite improbability drive and all that. But the chance of climate collapse causing social collapse is pretty much just a function of how bad we let it get measured in degrees C.
Re: Tough truths about climate
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
He says that as if he's certain it can't possibly, even a remote possibility, lead to societal collapse. First, there is no way he can be certain about that. Second, what is an acceptable probability for an existential threat? That's the real question to answer, and he didn't attempt to answer it.
societal collapse != humanities demise. Climate change could do a lot of damage it’s just not extinction level damage. Even large scale nuclear war based on current stockpiles isn’t going to result in extinction.
We're splitting hairs, but that still leaves the question, "what probability of societal collapse do you think is acceptable?
Re: Tough truths about climate
#26Gates, who is not a climate scientist, not even a scientist, spreading misinformation to try to make money for his investments just like he always does.
So you didn’t read the article?
Re: Tough truths about climate
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
He says that as if he's certain it can't possibly, even a remote possibility, lead to societal collapse. First, there is no way he can be certain about that. Second, what is an acceptable probability for an existential threat? That's the real question to answer, and he didn't attempt to answer it.
There is a non-zero possibility of Taylor Swift causing societal collapse. That's not a reason to take such a scenario seriously.
Your example is infinitesimally small, climate change is not. But you didn't answer the question either, what probability of societal collapse do you think is acceptable?
Re: Tough truths about climate
#28getting the whole world to agree on climate accords didn't work. we blew past the 1 degree allowance we had budgeted for ourselves, so global action together is off the table. What will work, is extraordinary efforts by smaller groups. There's a lot of hard work by tiny groups and individuals to technologies that don't need the whole world to agree to collective action in order to save the planet. The obvious science fiction idea is to put sunglasses between the Earth and the sun, which is a ludicrous idea, because you'd need an insane amount of capability to lift things into space and place them far away from Earth. Once there, you'd just blackmail all the Earth's governments into paying you so the solar panels they rely on will work in order for your venture to be profitable.
Re: Tough truths about climate
#29Gates, who is not a climate scientist, not even a scientist, spreading misinformation to try to make money for his investments just like he always does.
He really was one of the first techies to project genius when he really just had antisocial behavior - sort of paving the way for folks like Musk and Thiel. There is such a distortion field around Gates that has been meticulously crafted for years, really since his rebranding after those antitrust trials that ruined his image.
'Investing' in mass media outlets helped craft his image and you're right, he's not a genius in any way shape or form. Antisocial is the perfect description.
Re: Tough truths about climate
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