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Being 18 anytime between 1948 and 1988 was worse. People forget that everyone expected a nuclear war to kill all of us in a way that makes climate change seem l
by antt 8y ago
Being 18 anytime between 1948 and 1988 was worse. People forget that everyone expected a nuclear war to kill all of us in a way that makes climate change seem like a nice relaxing day at the beach.
- paulsutter 8y agoI was 18 in 1984 and I never met anyone in my entire life who expected nuclear war. Anyone with an interest in science already knew about global warming in 1984. And politicians from both parties haven’t done jack about it ever since.
- godelski 8y agoRelevant and good article about climate change and politics in the 80's https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/climate-change-losing-earth.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/08/01/magazine/clim...
- ars 8y agoThat is not true. I was (and am) obsessed with science and the only thing I heard about then was global cooling because of carbon (as in smoke, not carbon dioxide) pollution. The main fear back then was toxins of various kinds, from smog to nuclear to pesticides. I agree with you that nuclear war was an earlier fear, 1960's. Back then the concern was cleaning up the environment. CO2 was never mentioned. It was about air and water pollution, and garbage on land.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoI remember first hearing about it in the early eighties, this was through the national news in the UK.
- mikeash 8y agoI would just like to remind everybody that nuclear war is still a major threat! It didn’t evaporate with the USSR, despite how people act. The US and Russia still have thousands of warheads ready to go at a moment’s notice. The numbers are down substantially from their peak, but the arsenals are still large enough to thoroughly wreck civilization. I’m constantly baffled at how everyone acts like nuclear war is a historical curiosity. This is not to take away from climate change, which is also a major threat. It’s not either-or, we should fix both.
- listenallyall 8y agoYou had to have really been out to lunch in 1983 if you were not at least aware of The Day After and its impact and controversy. https://www.avclub.com/the-day-after-traumatized-a-generation-with-the-horrors-1798447330 https://www.avclub.com/the-day-after-traumatized-a-generatio...
- paulsutter 8y agoGlobal warming is underway right now. It’s not a TV drama. and here’s Sting from 1985: How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy? There is no monopoly on common sense On either side of the political fence. We share the same biology, regardless of ideology. Believe me when I say to you, The Russians love their children too
- ggm 8y agoI was 23 and living in York and we were sent "protect and survive" by the government, to ensure we understood how to conduct ourselves in the event of nuclear war.
- ekianjo 8y ago> I was 18 in 1984 and I never met anyone in my entire life who expected nuclear war. Where did you live then? If you want to convince yourself this was actually a thing you can watch "threads". That was not remotely seen as some kind of remote science-fiction story back then.
- ForHackernews 8y agoThe difference is that avoiding nuclear war just required not nuking each other. The default climate path is toward catastrophe. We needed to be taking urgent action on global warming 20 years ago. Now, we need to take even faster action and also try to invent scifi negative-emissions technology. I feel very sorry for young people. We've failed them.
- agumonkey 8y agoIt's true, but I'd suggest there's a scale difference between fighting a human enemy and planet scale thermodynamics