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> As demanding and dangerous as poorly regulated manufacturing workplaces can be, they tend to be no more demanding and no more dangerous than agricultural work

> As demanding and dangerous as poorly regulated manufacturing workplaces can be, they tend to be no more demanding and no more dangerous than agricultural work. Sometimes changes in climate can also lead to agricultural work simply becoming impossible/unprofitable, thus forcing rural labor to move to the cities, looking for work which isn't impacted by the climate. At least that's what happened in Syria [0], the sad part is that the final outcome wasn't all that unexpected [1]. [0] https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2009/09/02/drought-driving-farmers-cities https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2009/09/02/drought-driving-... [1] https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08DAMASCUS847_a.html https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08DAMASCUS847_a.html

njarboe 9y ago
Ongoing automation of the agriculture economy in China is a much bigger displacement of labor than climate change. Without deep study it would be hard to even guess if climate change will be a net positive or negative for agricultural output in a country as large and diverse as China. Some what disappointing to see the "climate change" meme come up so often as the cause for some badness in the world when it is, at best, tangentially related to the issue being discussed.
- freeflight 9y ago
  > Some what disappointing to see the "climate change" meme come up so often as the cause for some badness in the world when it is, at best, tangentially related to the issue being discussed. Nowhere in my comment did I make "man-made climate change" a topic, I merely pointed out that outside of economic factors there are also environmental factors which can make rural agricultural production unprofitable if not straight up unviable. As such it's quite relevant to the parent's point of "Why do people move from rural areas to urban centers?" Because I'm pretty sure that Syria isn't the only place on Earth suffering from droughts, or other changes in climate, impacting a regions viability for agricultural production.

njarboe 9y ago

Ongoing automation of the agriculture economy in China is a much bigger displacement of labor than climate change. Without deep study it would be hard to even guess if climate change will be a net positive or negative for agricultural output in a country as large and diverse as China. Some what disappointing to see the "climate change" meme come up so often as the cause for some badness in the world when it is, at best, tangentially related to the issue being discussed.

freeflight 9y ago
> Some what disappointing to see the "climate change" meme come up so often as the cause for some badness in the world when it is, at best, tangentially related to the issue being discussed. Nowhere in my comment did I make "man-made climate change" a topic, I merely pointed out that outside of economic factors there are also environmental factors which can make rural agricultural production unprofitable if not straight up unviable. As such it's quite relevant to the parent's point of "Why do people move from rural areas to urban centers?" Because I'm pretty sure that Syria isn't the only place on Earth suffering from droughts, or other changes in climate, impacting a regions viability for agricultural production.