Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Earth will be just fine without humans.
Human intelligence is the best thing ever produced on Earth
Says a human.
Ozone hole goes large again
91–100 of 116 posts
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should spend some time on YouTube watching videos about China and North Korea. It’s not absurd at all and the psychological mechanisms are well known to anyone who’s spent time reviewing how controlling a population works. Just a minimal cursory review reveals how fear and a rigid hierarchy are all that’s needed.
I was born in the USSR, so, with all due respect, I think I know more about the internal mechanics of undemocratic states than a person who watched YouTube.
I would go even farther, that someone recommending to watch youtube for such a topic is either joking, never been around the block, or literally copy-and-pasting from somewhere else.
Though to be fair, the vast vast majority of HN comments regarding more complex topics are not coming from first hand sources, or those who've had serious discussions with people who've had that first hand experience.
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s … not how it works. The US had built strong unions in multiple areas of work because people didn’t comply with what was expected of them. This is part of why its middle class became large and monetarily strong. We’re people to band together in defiance of the expectations of the wealthy and political class, they could wrestle power back and rebalance the system. It’s history. Go read it.
Unions are quite different than armed response >If the people armed themselves and coordinated, they would outnumber policemen and soldiers. It feels like chaos would emerge, no true leaderships, gangs, mafias everywhere
The early history of unions is full of violent clashes
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard from a law student in China that the law is a tool to control the masses. Assuming that is true, ignoring the law is simply taking things under control and bribery is the cost of doing business.
>I've heard from a law student in China that the law is a tool to control the masses. // How is that different to other countries? In the UK, for example, the Tory party have been enacting laws to make it difficult to legally protest.
Because in most western nations the government itself is bound by laws. There’s a huge philosophical difference between the way Chinese view law and we do.
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find this kind of sentiment a little vacuous. Charitably, we might say "Much of the non-human life on Earth will be just fine without humans" but the kinds of ecological disaster that would wipe us would would take a significant chunk of other life along with it. Beyond that, what value is a floating chunk of rock except for the very fact it sustains conscious life, the only thing capable of valuing it? Humans, and…
Value is a human concept.
That's... their point. If you think it counters their point, can you unpack how?
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
If you find yourself often linking two totally disimilar things like this you should probably do some introspection. I know it is popular to tell oneself: "but China", so one can stop thinking about what we can do, but China as of 2023 has 3 times (!) the capacity of installed renewable energy than the US. You can always find some metric where your side looks better and the other worse, the trick is not to let yourse…
> You can always find some metric where your side looks better and the other worse, the trick is not to let yourself use it to excuse your own bullshit unless you love to actively harm yourself.
This is such an important point. My family’s been in the Los Angeles area since the 1950s and I remember a semi-constant stream of whining from conservatives about California’s environmental laws, and that “someone else will just pollute more” excuse for inaction was a common refrain. This was always annoying because even if we assume that the global situation will get worse, it’s not just less bad than it would have been but also locally they reduced a massive number of deaths, illnesses, asthma cases, etc. not to mention the quality of life improvements from not getting headaches or having days where you can’t see across the street. Even if removing plastic straws or bags isn’t going to save the world, anyone who likes going to the water is going to appreciate not having all of that trash visible.
The other thing we always need to keep in mind is that we are living in huge, well-developed economies with millions of people. We can do many things at once and something like a ban on single-use plastic is not a huge time sink. We banned disposable plastic bags here, and despite all of the dire predictions it took less than a week to adjust.
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Human intelligence is the best thing ever produced on Earth
Says a human.
But you are human. Even when you try to care for what non-humans value, you're still doing that because of your human values. You literally can't step outside yourself.
It's fair to say that FredPret is evaluating "best" at the same level of zoom as you are.
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
The regime exists only because the people believe in the regime. If the people armed themselves and coordinated, they would outnumber policemen and soldiers. This is true in China, but it's true everywhere else. It's true in the west. If people stop complying we would get way more power and overall reduce inequality between the few rich and powerful and politically connect and you everyday Joe. For the same principle…
>If people stop complying we would get way more power and overall reduce inequality between the few rich and powerful and politically connect and you everyday Joe. I dont believe it Inequality would be even worse and upward mobility would be reduced, at least in the west.
If we stop cooperating, what defines "upward"? Isn't upward just the direction of "more people are cooperating with your plans"?
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#99It goes "large again" every year with the seasons, but the overall trend is that it's still shrinking: Claus concludes, “Based on the Montreal Protocol and the decrease of anthropogenic ozone-depleting substances, scientists currently predict that the global ozone layer will reach its normal state again by around 2050.”
Imagine if we'd invented CFCs but hadn't invented a way to monitor atmospheric O3 levels. We'd have burned the entire ozone layer away before we even realised that anything was wrong.
I wonder if we are currently not monitoring something similar that we should be.
Re: Ozone hole goes large again
#100Wasn't there a story about satellite imagery detecting massive CFC releases in China from expandable foam? Edit: found one... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/23/china-factorie...
4 years ago.
The article of this post point to another reason: some volcano activity last year.