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What I got out of it is what I usually see with my attempts at being objective; we know this is happening, we don't fully understand why, and we don't fully kno
by talmand 11y ago
What I got out of it is what I usually see with my attempts at being objective; we know this is happening, we don't fully understand why, and we don't fully know the pros and cons. There are guesses and theories, many of which I'm sympathetic to, that too many people are willing to move forward without being cautious.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoThe house is burning down, and we should be cautious?!
- talmand 11y agoYes. A horribly mismanaged attempt at putting out a house fire can cause unnecessary problems for the rest of the neighborhood.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoBut this is a house we can't actually leave. That changes the equation completely.
- talmand 11y agoNo it doesn't. Regardless of your particular situation, if you mismanage the solution, then chances are you are only making the problem worse.
- RyanZAG 11y agoYes, the house is burning down! We have a whole lot of gasoline on hand. We can dump it all onto the burning fire to try and put it out. Possible outcomes: 1) We manage to dump enough gasoline on it to starve it of oxygen quickly enough and the fire is burnt out. We clean up all the gasoline. The day is saved. 2) The gasoline catches on fire and the whole neighborhood burns down from our attempt to fix it. 3) We manage to dump enough gasoline on it to starve it of oxygen quickly enough and the fire is burnt out. The gasoline left behind isn't cleaned up well enough and it catches on fire a day later causing a bigger fire. Or we choose to do nothing: 1) The house burns down. The fire does not spread. We build a new house. 2) The house burns down and the fire spreads, burning down the whole neighbourhood. Or maybe we watch the fire for awhile and find a better way to put it out. The climate isn't as simple as this analogy. This isn't a black and white issue where we can dump our whole economy down the drain and everything is guaranteed to be rosy.
- yongjik 11y agoI dunno, billions of people seem perfectly willing to "move forward" with burning fossil fuels even when we don't fully understand its pros and cons. (I also use a gas heater and conventional vehicles, so I guess I'm one of them.) Or does it not count as "moving forward" when we've been doing it for decades and there's a multi-billion-dollar industry that's interested in keeping the current direction?
- talmand 11y agoYep, I agree, and look how well the desire to move forward immediately with fossil fuels turned out. Thanks for providing an example of what I'm saying. It's not an evil aspect of the human race, it's just that we are extremely short sighted by our nature. As for the corporations, of course they want to keep the current direction. It's how they make money. Regardless of the direction we choose in how to handle the situation, if we decide us doing something is warranted, I guarantee those same corporations will figure out a way to make money from it. The bad things you see them doing today against change will turn into bad things they'll do when they embrace change. My concern is that in our efforts to do something quickly we cause more harm than what we proposed to prevent or fix. In that vain, some of the accusations that I'm hearing about the diesel scandal in the EU is of a similar thought.