5 ms·

>But now after surviving the last five mass extinctions on Earth, their numbers are suddenly starting to dwindle. We are fucking things up so badly. Are we ac

by giarc 10y ago

>But now after surviving the last five mass extinctions on Earth, their numbers are suddenly starting to dwindle. We are fucking things up so badly. Are we actually on track to fix the damage from climate change? Are we doing enough? Are people willing to live with what is really needed to stop climate change? This thing survived 5 mass extinctions, are humans what was really needed to kill it off?

wuschel 10y ago
"Are we doing enough?" This question is spot on. We have this planet, our habitat, in our hands. Overexploition of natural recources can bring our ecosystem in dire straits, and us with it. We can loose so much. About time to use technology to change this. And about time to change out behaviour en masse.
- mynewtb 10y ago
  Meh, gotta rewrite our frontend in Angular 2 to impress YC and cash out on our IoT razor blade disposal community.
  - wuschel 10y ago
    I take that as bleeding edge sarcasm :^) There are many startup endeavours that aim to use tech for the better of our ecosystem e.g. all the startups affiliated with the New Harvest Community (http://new-harvest.org http://new-harvest.org).
    - beamatronic 10y ago
      >> blade disposal >> bleeding edge
- sevenless 10y ago
  It feels inevitable we're going to end up spraying sulfate into the air to keep cool, because that's by far the cheapest solution to global warming. It also doesn't fix any of the fundamental problems. Maybe a sign of (rather unintelligent) industrialized life on other planets would be sulfate aerosol spectra in the atmosphere too consistent to be explained by vulcanism...
graeme 10y ago
No, we are increasing the annual rate of planetary carbon emissions. Not only are we not fixing it, we are accelerating in the wrong direct.
riffic 10y ago
at this point the elephant in the room is the extinction of humanity. I'm guessing we have 200-500 years left.
- M_Grey 10y ago
  I think the species has much, much longer, but our civilization?... we're pretty much dooming that. In a few decades the options will be, "scientific miracle" or, "Slow decline". That assumes we don't blow up as a species form the conflict which arises as the climate shifts... something we're already seeing a bit of in North Africa for example.
  - contingencies 10y ago
    Civilization will be redefined. We are moving to a mass participation, hive-mind, internationalized structure rather than a series traditional country or culture-walled hierarchies with inward-looking tradition. This is not all bad, but IMHO we have definitely already experienced a distinct loss of clarity of expression across the western world (the letter-writing tradition and books = properly constructed line of reasoning, structured writing, considered communication -> emails and emoji = short, emotional reactions, unstructured/unsupported opine, ill-considered). On the flip side, everyone can communicate and a lot of pedantic grammar laws are becoming irrelevancies. People genuinely care more about being understood than pedantry, and that's a good thing IMHO. As for food/water/environment/waste-management/freedom, on the whole our political systems (exception: China) are not able to effectively reason on those timeframes, and find it easier to pass the blame internationally. We all know where that is leading.
    - M_Grey 10y ago
      You're talking more about culture, I'm talking about banging the rocks together levels of absolute downfall. I think your view is probably the more optimistic one.
  - meric 10y ago
    I think it's between "slow decline" and "precipitous collapse". Nuclear war, sudden energy shortage, food stores wiped out, radiation leak, EMP terrorist attack, Electric grid sabotage, Solar flare EMP, Magnetic pole reversal, sudden economic collapse, sudden ecosystem collapse. We'd be lucky to "slowly" lose our civilisation to climate change... Personally I have sworn off the car, and my only significant consumption on this planet is my computer, and my aeroplane journeys. Otherwise it's mostly just food, water and train rides. No idea how else I can contribute...
M_Grey 10y ago
No, we're not doing enough, and even if human nature suddenly and radically changed overnight we'd still be in trouble. The options now range from massive problems, to 'Game Over' for our civilization. Keep in mind that if we're knocked back to mud huts, we're not coming back from it this time, we've long since used up the relatively accessible resources that made it happen the first time.

by giarc 10y ago

wuschel 10y ago

"Are we doing enough?" This question is spot on. We have this planet, our habitat, in our hands. Overexploition of natural recources can bring our ecosystem in dire straits, and us with it. We can loose so much. About time to use technology to change this. And about time to change out behaviour en masse.

mynewtb 10y ago
Meh, gotta rewrite our frontend in Angular 2 to impress YC and cash out on our IoT razor blade disposal community.
- wuschel 10y ago
  I take that as bleeding edge sarcasm :^) There are many startup endeavours that aim to use tech for the better of our ecosystem e.g. all the startups affiliated with the New Harvest Community (http://new-harvest.org http://new-harvest.org).
  - beamatronic 10y ago
    >> blade disposal >> bleeding edge
sevenless 10y ago
It feels inevitable we're going to end up spraying sulfate into the air to keep cool, because that's by far the cheapest solution to global warming. It also doesn't fix any of the fundamental problems. Maybe a sign of (rather unintelligent) industrialized life on other planets would be sulfate aerosol spectra in the atmosphere too consistent to be explained by vulcanism...

graeme 10y ago

No, we are increasing the annual rate of planetary carbon emissions. Not only are we not fixing it, we are accelerating in the wrong direct.

riffic 10y ago

at this point the elephant in the room is the extinction of humanity. I'm guessing we have 200-500 years left.

M_Grey 10y ago
I think the species has much, much longer, but our civilization?... we're pretty much dooming that. In a few decades the options will be, "scientific miracle" or, "Slow decline". That assumes we don't blow up as a species form the conflict which arises as the climate shifts... something we're already seeing a bit of in North Africa for example.
- contingencies 10y ago
  Civilization will be redefined. We are moving to a mass participation, hive-mind, internationalized structure rather than a series traditional country or culture-walled hierarchies with inward-looking tradition. This is not all bad, but IMHO we have definitely already experienced a distinct loss of clarity of expression across the western world (the letter-writing tradition and books = properly constructed line of reasoning, structured writing, considered communication -> emails and emoji = short, emotional reactions, unstructured/unsupported opine, ill-considered). On the flip side, everyone can communicate and a lot of pedantic grammar laws are becoming irrelevancies. People genuinely care more about being understood than pedantry, and that's a good thing IMHO. As for food/water/environment/waste-management/freedom, on the whole our political systems (exception: China) are not able to effectively reason on those timeframes, and find it easier to pass the blame internationally. We all know where that is leading.
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    You're talking more about culture, I'm talking about banging the rocks together levels of absolute downfall. I think your view is probably the more optimistic one.
- meric 10y ago
  I think it's between "slow decline" and "precipitous collapse". Nuclear war, sudden energy shortage, food stores wiped out, radiation leak, EMP terrorist attack, Electric grid sabotage, Solar flare EMP, Magnetic pole reversal, sudden economic collapse, sudden ecosystem collapse. We'd be lucky to "slowly" lose our civilisation to climate change... Personally I have sworn off the car, and my only significant consumption on this planet is my computer, and my aeroplane journeys. Otherwise it's mostly just food, water and train rides. No idea how else I can contribute...

M_Grey 10y ago

No, we're not doing enough, and even if human nature suddenly and radically changed overnight we'd still be in trouble. The options now range from massive problems, to 'Game Over' for our civilization. Keep in mind that if we're knocked back to mud huts, we're not coming back from it this time, we've long since used up the relatively accessible resources that made it happen the first time.