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Being scared of AI wiping out the human race while dismissing the total disaster climate change has already started causing is pretty insane to me. It's like di

by ebbv 9y ago

Being scared of AI wiping out the human race while dismissing the total disaster climate change has already started causing is pretty insane to me. It's like dismissing gangrene in your leg "We can just cut my leg off." while being scared of an alien disease that has never even been discovered because you're sure it's fatal.

ThomPete 9y ago
What total disaster are you talking about?
- ebbv 9y ago
  Bangladesh is being eaten by the ocean. Other small islands are as well. Droughts and other natural disasters are becoming more severe. Greenland is melting and the arctic ice shelves are receding. There's tons of information out there on the impact climate change is already having, any quick search will yield you lots of articles and videos.
  - ThomPete 9y ago
    That has nothing to do with total disaster. Quick search will show me many different things including climate change is real, climate change is a hoax, ice is expanding 9/11 was done by the government etc. "A quick search" is the worst form of argument that exist as it will show you many different things.
    - ebbv 9y ago
      I'm not sure even where to begin here. First off, my referring you to make a search wasn't deferring an argument to Google, it was me not wanting to do research for you. Yes, you can find sources that say anything you want, but all sources are not created equal, and the number of sources are not equal as well. If you cannot separate good sources from bad sources of information, well that's a problem I can't help you with. > That has nothing to do with total disaster. What on earth do you mean? You don't think Bangladesh and other low lying nations losing land to the rising oceans is a total disaster? I'm starting to feel like you're not interested in a real discussion, and if that's the case I'm done replying to you.
      - ThomPete 9y ago
        So in other words a quick search does not prove anything as you claimed. We are speaking for humankind here not for one country. Claiming it's total disaster is missusing that word and sounds more like you are the one who doesn't want a real discussion but just want to preach your already established opinion about the climate. Thanks but no thanks.
  - averagewall 9y ago
    Bangladesh's population is growing by 1-2% per year [1]. Isn't that just as bad as losing 1-2% of their land to sea level ever year? How are you concerned about them losing land but not about them gaining people? [1] http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-population/ http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-pop...
    - ebbv 9y ago
      > Bangladesh's population is growing by 1-2% per year [1]. Isn't that just as bad as losing 1-2% of their land to sea level ever year? No, it isn't. First off, 1% of the population doesn't "consume" 1% of the land. People can be packed in pretty densely. Second off, people can move/relocate. The land, once lost to the rising ocean, is gone forever. > How are you concerned about them losing land but not about them gaining people? Why are you putting words in my mouth? When did I even mention overpopulation let alone dismiss it? Of course overpopulation is an issue, and is a cause of climate change. But it wasn't part of the conversation. If you want to bring it in, I would say it is also a bigger concern than AI.
  - averagewall 9y ago
    There's actually very little information about the problems that climate change will cause. We're pretty bad at modelling political effects, especially not decades into the future. We really have no idea how well we'll cope. We can predict sea level rise with reasonable confidence but I haven't seen any predictions of what people will do in response to that. Will they kill each other? Or gradually move away in a calm fashion the way ordinary migrants do all the time?
    - ebbv 9y ago
      You're right, modeling the political effects is extremely complicated and I would agree almost impossible to do with any granularity. But we don't have to do that in order to know that the effects we can see happening are disastrous because even the best case scenarios of people calmly relocating are still a disaster, because the destinations are not prepared for the influx of population (think of the Syrian refugee criss but many, many times over.)

by ebbv 9y ago

ThomPete 9y ago

What total disaster are you talking about?

ebbv 9y ago
Bangladesh is being eaten by the ocean. Other small islands are as well. Droughts and other natural disasters are becoming more severe. Greenland is melting and the arctic ice shelves are receding. There's tons of information out there on the impact climate change is already having, any quick search will yield you lots of articles and videos.
- ThomPete 9y ago
  That has nothing to do with total disaster. Quick search will show me many different things including climate change is real, climate change is a hoax, ice is expanding 9/11 was done by the government etc. "A quick search" is the worst form of argument that exist as it will show you many different things.
  - ebbv 9y ago
    I'm not sure even where to begin here. First off, my referring you to make a search wasn't deferring an argument to Google, it was me not wanting to do research for you. Yes, you can find sources that say anything you want, but all sources are not created equal, and the number of sources are not equal as well. If you cannot separate good sources from bad sources of information, well that's a problem I can't help you with. > That has nothing to do with total disaster. What on earth do you mean? You don't think Bangladesh and other low lying nations losing land to the rising oceans is a total disaster? I'm starting to feel like you're not interested in a real discussion, and if that's the case I'm done replying to you.
    - ThomPete 9y ago
      So in other words a quick search does not prove anything as you claimed. We are speaking for humankind here not for one country. Claiming it's total disaster is missusing that word and sounds more like you are the one who doesn't want a real discussion but just want to preach your already established opinion about the climate. Thanks but no thanks.
- averagewall 9y ago
  Bangladesh's population is growing by 1-2% per year [1]. Isn't that just as bad as losing 1-2% of their land to sea level ever year? How are you concerned about them losing land but not about them gaining people? [1] http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-population/ http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/bangladesh-pop...
  - ebbv 9y ago
    > Bangladesh's population is growing by 1-2% per year [1]. Isn't that just as bad as losing 1-2% of their land to sea level ever year? No, it isn't. First off, 1% of the population doesn't "consume" 1% of the land. People can be packed in pretty densely. Second off, people can move/relocate. The land, once lost to the rising ocean, is gone forever. > How are you concerned about them losing land but not about them gaining people? Why are you putting words in my mouth? When did I even mention overpopulation let alone dismiss it? Of course overpopulation is an issue, and is a cause of climate change. But it wasn't part of the conversation. If you want to bring it in, I would say it is also a bigger concern than AI.
- averagewall 9y ago
  There's actually very little information about the problems that climate change will cause. We're pretty bad at modelling political effects, especially not decades into the future. We really have no idea how well we'll cope. We can predict sea level rise with reasonable confidence but I haven't seen any predictions of what people will do in response to that. Will they kill each other? Or gradually move away in a calm fashion the way ordinary migrants do all the time?
  - ebbv 9y ago
    You're right, modeling the political effects is extremely complicated and I would agree almost impossible to do with any granularity. But we don't have to do that in order to know that the effects we can see happening are disastrous because even the best case scenarios of people calmly relocating are still a disaster, because the destinations are not prepared for the influx of population (think of the Syrian refugee criss but many, many times over.)