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Crises that humanity now faces

theguardian.com

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Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#31

Post by SolaceQuantum »

_yosefk wrote: post #27
roryisok wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is he not a huge crisis that humanity now faces? Racists, homophobes, white supremacists, and climate-change deniers running the whitehouse?

If you want to bet, this guy proposes a variety of things to bet on: http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/16/you-are-still-crying-wo... "1. Total hate crimes incidents as measured here will be not more than 125% of their 2015 value at any year during a Trump presidency, conditional on similar reporting methodology [confidence: 80%] 2. Total minority population of US citizens will increase throughout Trump’s presidency […

I think number 10 is a little misleading. If Trump manages to deport almost as much as Obama in 4 years, he is deporting almost twice as much. Which is very alarming.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#32

Post by dajohnson89 »

inimino wrote: post #14
lisper wrote: post #13

But not a word about the elephant in the room: overpopulation.

Wasn't that the panic of an earlier decade?

Yes and I'm not sure why the panic has subsided. Has the world really increased its capacity for human population? More likely: it's media meme that had come and gone.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#33

Post by daxfohl »

_yosefk wrote: post #27
roryisok wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is he not a huge crisis that humanity now faces? Racists, homophobes, white supremacists, and climate-change deniers running the whitehouse?

If you want to bet, this guy proposes a variety of things to bet on: http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/16/you-are-still-crying-wo... "1. Total hate crimes incidents as measured here will be not more than 125% of their 2015 value at any year during a Trump presidency, conditional on similar reporting methodology [confidence: 80%] 2. Total minority population of US citizens will increase throughout Trump’s presidency […

But a 1% chance on #7 is terrifying, no? Or has the world changed that much?

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#34

Post by joss82 »

throwaway1892 wrote: post #15
nekgrim wrote: post #11

And still, our right-wing politics (in France) still think euthanasia shouldn't be allowed. Screw this world if you want, but at least let me die before you kill us all.

You can jump from a cliff if you're tired from this world, but don't ask doctors to do it for you.

What if you are too sick to jump off that proverbial cliff?

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#35

Post by golemotron »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #26
golemotron wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's time for us to question the belief that everyone in the world can put aside their differences and share the same values. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the fear that underlies prediction of catastrophe is fear that we'll never get to that ideal world. Can we imagine a different future, where groups of people form their own local cultural norms and value sets, and we still manage to all live and…

If that's true, that people really can't live in the same country as those with different skin colors, or accents or religions without blaming their problems on each other, then why wouldn't they just blame people in other countries? Seems like blaming the foreigners that immigrate and blaming the foreigners that don't, go hand in hand.

It seems like you are replying to an idea about what I said rather than what I said.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#36

Post by _petronius »

golemotron wrote: post #6

After decades of hearing that the sky is falling for these and other reasons, and realizing that it never does, I've come to the conclusion that the people who push this sort of fear need to be challenged. Humanity will muddle through, we always do.

We may "muddle through", but the "muddling" will be wars caused by agricultural collapse[0], deaths caused by trying to keep refugees of those wars at bay[1], and violence in "far away" places as the industrialized world seeks to maintain its standard of living in the process[2][3][4].

The disaster is already in full swing, I'm afraid. And attitudes like this are the old adage about frogs and boiling water. It may not look like it in Berlin, London, California (but then again[5]), Hong Kong, or Tokyo, but millions of people are suffering already. The best case right now is the industrialized world makes it at the expense of the "undeveloped" nations, but as Mark Blythe pointed out, the Hamptons is not a defensible position[6]. So it may be worth considering whether this head-in-the-sand approach is worth it, even from a purely self-interest point of view.

[0]: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150302-syria...

[1]: http://www.amnesty.eu/content/assets/Reports/EUR_050012014__...

[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/03/canada-barrick...

[3]: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/02/foreign-fi...

[4]: https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/02/19/sierra-leone-mining-boom...

[5]: http://www.californiadrought.org/drought/current-conditions/

[6]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwK0jeJ8wxg

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#37

Post by inimino »

dajohnson89 wrote: post #32
inimino wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't that the panic of an earlier decade?

Yes and I'm not sure why the panic has subsided. Has the world really increased its capacity for human population? More likely: it's media meme that had come and gone.

Birth rates are levelling off.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#38

Post by golemotron »

_petronius wrote: post #36
golemotron wrote: post #6

After decades of hearing that the sky is falling for these and other reasons, and realizing that it never does, I've come to the conclusion that the people who push this sort of fear need to be challenged. Humanity will muddle through, we always do.

We may "muddle through", but the "muddling" will be wars caused by agricultural collapse[0], deaths caused by trying to keep refugees of those wars at bay[1], and violence in "far away" places as the industrialized world seeks to maintain its standard of living in the process[2][3][4]. The disaster is already in full swing, I'm afraid. And attitudes like this are the old adage about frogs and boiling water. It may no…

Yet world poverty has been in decline for years: https://www.cato.org/blog/dramatic-decline-world-poverty

World violence is decreasing: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2...

Disease rates are declining across the world: http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/life-expectancy-incre...

And pollution is deceasing too: https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning...

Smile every once in a while. It's good for you.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#39

Post by andrewclunn »

inimino wrote: post #28
andrewclunn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know that's not true. Come on, have you seen the community here? I've done so before with things like this and it hasn't mattered. Besides, a nothing but ideology link like this (and the above comment the demonstrates a self deluded echo chamber mentality) provide no basis for any real conversation because there's nothing there to discuss. Don't feel bad though, I couldn't give a shit about some online news aggre…

I'm pretty sure that is true. Of course as soon as I saw the George Monbiot byline I knew how the piece would read. But if you want to present a counterpoint, present a counter point. If you just tell people they are stupid, they will just downvote you. Karma's useless but downvotes are a signal you're not winning the hearts and minds.

No it isn't, and then wouldn't the same standard follow for stating that people who disagree with you hate democracy and don't care about the planet? You don't beat the pc police and progressive echo chamber by playing their stupid game of "civil discourse." You kick them in the cunt with a picture of Mohammed wearing black face, shouting so loud that they can't drown you out. The answer to smug censorship is an alliance of all the disdainful, distasteful, and disrespectful asshole who won't be told what to think trolling the comments of any masturbatory "article" that treats dissenters like sub human scum. It works, and we're winning, because it turns out that elitist condescension loses to antiestablishment rage.

Re: Crises that humanity now faces

#40

Post by kazinator »

lisper wrote: post #13

But not a word about the elephant in the room: overpopulation.

Why it is the elephant is probably that if you decry overpopulation, you're implicitly complaining about them, not us.

You can't invoke overpopulation without bringing in racial and other divisions, because it's not the developed nations where the populations growth is taking place (other than due to immigration).

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