Businessinsider = clickbait
This is the most depressing chart in the world
81–90 of 92 posts
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
So there are thousands of climate scientists which came, over and over again, to the same conclusion: that the extent of current heating is caused by co2 release, which is caused by coal-burning by mankind. Those have all made several mistakes and continue to make them and the 15 scientists or so who are of a different opinion are probably right? Is that what you are saying?
Some people have convinced themselves that climate change is not a problem. That's not based on scientific facts, but on superstitious beliefs ("it's a conspiracy", "we didn't do it", "there's nothing we can do about it anyway"). Study after study has showed that superstition cannot be overcome with facts. The more facts you present, the more they get stuck to their incorrect beliefs. It's depressing. The only soluti…
There's a problem with this, however: we live in mostly democratic societies (and the non-democratic societies like China are even more carbon-polluting). So you can't just ignore the idiots and still fix the problem; you have to get them to agree there's a problem so they'll vote in people who will do something about it.
And, as you point out, these people can't be convinced with facts.
So, the real solution is to just ignore the idiots and start preparing for a future that resembles Mad Max. Or be like Musk and work really hard on establishing a colony on Mars before you're too old to make the journey there.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
So there are thousands of climate scientists which came, over and over again, to the same conclusion: that the extent of current heating is caused by co2 release, which is caused by coal-burning by mankind. Those have all made several mistakes and continue to make them and the 15 scientists or so who are of a different opinion are probably right? Is that what you are saying?
We had thousands of astrology and magic practicioners. It didn't make astrology or magic true in any way. You know what makes modern physics true? Falsifiability and verifiability. You build a theory, make predictions, develop an experiment, and then conduct the experiment, multiple times. Climatology stops after the first two. Granted, astronomy and cosmology operate in similar way to climatology, but we don't estab…
>We had thousands of astrology and magic practicioners. It didn't make astrology or magic true in any way.
No, but a large chunk of the US population believes in this stuff even today.
And they vote.
That's why we're doomed.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the absence of growth the only way for an individual to get more resources is to take it from someone else. Life becomes a zero-sum game. This is a qualitative change. The game stops being who can make the most pie to who can take the most.
Life is already a negative-sum game for the majority of people. The common citizen has to work more and more hours and still gets diminishing returns, while a very small percentage of the population accumulates an increasing chunk of the resources. Zero-sum game would feel like a huge improvement for most.
> while a very small percentage of the population accumulates an increasing chunk of the resources...without any work.
FTFY
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Certain people seem to have more than enough to share around. Instead they seem to concentrate on accumulating more of it by (often by taking it from other people).
Sounds like you're proposing the zero sum outcome.
We're already at zero sum when GDP is growing at near zero, a.k.a not growing.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
So there are thousands of climate scientists which came, over and over again, to the same conclusion: that the extent of current heating is caused by co2 release, which is caused by coal-burning by mankind. Those have all made several mistakes and continue to make them and the 15 scientists or so who are of a different opinion are probably right? Is that what you are saying?
We had thousands of astrology and magic practicioners. It didn't make astrology or magic true in any way. You know what makes modern physics true? Falsifiability and verifiability. You build a theory, make predictions, develop an experiment, and then conduct the experiment, multiple times. Climatology stops after the first two. Granted, astronomy and cosmology operate in similar way to climatology, but we don't estab…
>We had thousands of astrology and magic practitioners. It didn't make astrology or magic true in any way.
What made their practices bogus was that it wasn't scientific.
So you're using an argument that undermines your very conclusion.
The analogy to proponents of astrology and magic would be people who doubt the scientific consensus.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In the absence of growth the only way for an individual to get more resources is to take it from someone else. Part of my point is that there are more than enough resources, what's needed is better distribution. Plus some scaling down the over-consumption of crap. Besides this "taking it from someone else" is already the case with the growth model, were not only a tiny fraction of the population has a huge percenta…
In Egypt 75% of the population is under the age of 25. These people want opportunities, jobs, apartments, cars, consumer goods, and escape from the daily struggle of poverty. Per capita GDP in Egypt is about $1575. For comparison in the US it's about $54 000. Blame inequality all you want but even with perfect equality the pie in Egypt is not big enough to provide all of its people with the western standard of life t…
>Really? You think colonialism is the main driver of economics growth?
Yeah, really. It was the big enabler for all the growth that later turned into the "industrial revolution", and continued to provide a huge percentage of western GDP well into the 20th century, directly (as exploited and plundered places) and indirectly (as markets for example).
Cheap oil, for one, is always good to ensure for one's country.
At some point it became economically inefficient to enslave countries with close to 2-3 billions of inhabitants, and the cold war had changed the political climate anyway, but not so much that countries won't participate in post-colonial power games.
It's no accident that it's exactly the countries that did the plundering (the colonial powers) that rose up into prominence, and the ones that were plundered that got the short end of the stick.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#88THIS is the most depressing chart in the world: https://stormglas.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/20131116-00180...
Not really. 2c isn't a problem unless you have brought too expensive beach-front property in Malibu or something. Humans will adapt, it is what we do second-best.
I guess those affluent villagers living in huts in the Pacific Islands will just have to relocate to Manhattan's Upper East Side?
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#89It is depressing due to the Y-axis not starting on zero.
> It is depressing due to the Y-axis not starting on zero It depends on what the focus of the data is. In this case the emphasis is on the difference between the series', not their relative distance from zero. So there's nothing wrong with truncating the axis, particularly on a line chart; why have a bunch of white-space at the bottom? Context is everything.
Putting too much "emphasis" on certain parts of the graph is precisely what starting the axis at zero is supposed to protect readers from. Context is what we're trying to see!
Edit: And in this case it wouldn't have hurt readability at all. Their point still would've come across just fine.
Re: This is the most depressing chart in the world
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> In the absence of growth the only way for an individual to get more resources is to take it from someone else. Part of my point is that there are more than enough resources, what's needed is better distribution. Plus some scaling down the over-consumption of crap. Besides this "taking it from someone else" is already the case with the growth model, were not only a tiny fraction of the population has a huge percenta…
I don't understand what you're saying. By any reasonable measure, the quality of life of the median human inhabitant of Planet Earth is better than it was 20 years ago, when it was better than it was 20 years before. You probably hit some dips for the World Wars, but if we can avoid any more of those, I don't see why we would want to stop the positive trendline that has accompanied and depends on economic growth.
>I don't understand what you're saying
That's because you use "quality of life" as if it meant purchase power or access to gadgets.
And even that's wrong -- people in the 50s could support a family of four/five and get their kids to college with a single office job. Present day middle class, not so much.
In fact it has been shown time and again that wages have been stagnating (when corrected for inflation) since the seventies or so.