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Crises that humanity now faces
- dublinclontarf 10y agoTo correct him on one point, the UK will have access to the common market(no one disputes this) What he is actually talking about is MEMBERSHIP of the common market(which likely requires free movement of people). Currently it is unlikely the UK will keep membership as it seems a trade agreement is the preferred option. Everything is up in the air and anyone who is sure of anything is either lying, misinformed, or deluded.
- andrewclunn 10y agoOh I wonder what will be on here other than climate change, bio-engineered plagues, and... oh, it's just a left wing fluff piece.
- polotics 10y agoyou mean caring about the planet and democracy is left wing now? wow
- andrewclunn 10y agoI mean it's worth the down votes to try to crack the echo chamber of pro globalism ideology spouted by people like you.
- inimino 10y agoMaybe if you had presented some challenges you believe are serious, or contributed in any meaningful way rather than just bitching, people would respond more favorably.
- andrewclunn 10y agoYou 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 aggregator karma score. I just couldn't let this article sit on the front page without a clear denouncement for being what it is. Edit - At the time, mine was the only comment.
- inimino 10y agoI'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.
- andrewclunn 10y agoNo 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.
- flipp3r 10y ago5 out of the 13 "impossible crises humanity will face" is people getting power because they were or might become democratically elected. What are you talking about?
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoAuthoritarians might get elected, but they sure don't let themselves get un-elected.
- notacoward 10y agoPoint 9 (UN Security Council) is something I hadn't thought of. That would be the Insecurity Council. Finding five people more likely to draw us all into a catastrophic war would be a challenge.
- roryisok 10y agoWell, you could replace May with Boris Johnson
- golemotron 10y agoAfter 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.
- jdavis703 10y agoI wasn't expecting the political tilt of this article. But perhaps many crises are avoided because we start doing something to prevent them. For example the ozone hole. Or the fear of mass terrorism after 9/11.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y agoMass terrorism was never a real fear, nor was a similar 9/11 style hijacking. In fact, 9/11 style hijackings were so easy to stop, they literally didn't remain effective for even 4 hours. (One of the planes was downed during the attack as it unfolded, because word of the attack had spread and it was that easy to stop. Had passengers not downed it, the military was en route to intercept.) About the only meaningful and smart thing we did post-9/11 was make airplane cockpit doors stronger and have a better lock. The rest? We should've just ignored it and gone on with our lives. Terrorism is meant to cause death to nations by auto-immune over-response, and the 9/11 attack was designed by CIA trained operatives to do exactly that. The PATRIOT Act may as well have been a concession note to bin Laden.
- drinchev 10y agoI agree. Fear of catastrophe is a catastrophe on its own. I have friends that tend to not want children, giving as a reason some of the problems that are stated in this article. I know ... Life goes on is very shallow thought, when you read article like this, but depression can't help solve those problems. As a matter of fact, that depression by the constant stream of negativity by the current highly-globalized world is the reason people vote against the system.
- mikeash 10y agoI tend to share your view. However, consider that if the end does come, it will be a one time thing. The view just before the end will be indistinguishable from the view you'd get in a world where there is no end.
- nekgrim 10y agoAnd 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.
- throwaway1892 10y agoYou can jump from a cliff if you're tired from this world, but don't ask doctors to do it for you.
- SomeStupidPoint 10y agoWhy? Im honestly curious why you don't think that's a service the medical industry should provide. (In particular, to elderly or terminally-ill people.)
- nekgrim 10y agoI don't ask doctors to do it for me, but I'd love my government to have enough humanity to allow me to die without pain.
- joss82 10y agoWhat if you are too sick to jump off that proverbial cliff?
- golemotron 10y agoI 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 thrive? I think it's important that we do because that may be the world that we live in.
- ZeroGravitas 10y agoIf 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.
- PedroBatista 10y agoIs shoehorning Trump in everything the new Rickrolling?
- roryisok 10y agoIs he not a huge crisis that humanity now faces? Racists, homophobes, white supremacists, and climate-change deniers running the whitehouse?
- _yosefk 10y agoIf you want to bet, this guy proposes a variety of things to bet on: http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/11/16/you-are-still-crying-wolf/ 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 [confidence: 99%] 3. US Muslim population increases throughout Trump’s presidency [confidence: 95%] 4. Trump cabinet will be at least 10% minority [confidence: 90%], at least 20% minority [confidence: 70%], at least 30% minority [30%]. Here I’m defining “minority” to include nonwhites, Latinos, and LGBT people, though not women. Note that by this definition America as a whole is about 35% minority and Congress is about 15% minority. 5. Gay marriage will remain legal throughout a Trump presidency [confidence: 95%] 6. Race relations as perceived by blacks, as measured by this Gallup poll, will do better under Trump than they did under Obama (ie the change in race relations 2017-2021 will be less negative/more positive than the change 2009-2016) [confidence: 70%]. 7. Neither Trump nor any of his officials (Cabinet, etc) will endorse the KKK, Stormfront, or explicit neo-Nazis publicly, refuse to back down, etc, and keep their job [confidence: 99%]. 8. No large demographic group (> 1 million people) get forced to sign up for a “registry” [confidence: 95%] 9> No large demographic group gets sent to internment camps [confidence: 99%] 10. Number of deportations during Trump’s four years will not be greater than Obama’s 8 [confidence: 90%] If you disagree with me, come up with a bet and see if I’ll take it. And if you don’t, stop. Stop fearmongering."
- 10y ago
- lisper 10y agoBut not a word about the elephant in the room: overpopulation.
- inimino 10y agoWasn't that the panic of an earlier decade?
- golemotron 10y agoYes, that and killer bees.
- dajohnson89 10y agoYes 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.
- inimino 10y agoBirth rates are levelling off.
- andrewclunn 10y agoNo. No they aren't. The number of pregnancies is declining, but the pregnancies that result in a child who lives more than two years has never been higher.
- inimino 10y agoHigher, and levelling off.
- dajohnson89 10y agoSo, it's exponential growth, but with a slower rate.