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The idea that a huge infusion of Keynesian spending into the economy is going to trigger a generation-long recession has to be the least informed take. The cho

The idea that a huge infusion of Keynesian spending into the economy is going to trigger a generation-long recession has to be the least informed take. The choice is a stark one: either invest in technologies and infrastructure to decrease CO2 production, or give future generations the gift of a dead planet.

garmaine 7y ago
> The choice is a stark one: either invest in technologies and infrastructure to decrease CO2 production, or give future generations the gift of a dead planet. The science says otherwise. Did you know that for most of Earth's evolutionary history the climate was far, far warmer with higher CO2 concentrations than today? Global warming has lots of negative ramifications, but it is not going to create a "dead planet." Spreading outright falsehoods doesn't help things.
- shagmin 7y ago
  It may just be hyperbole, but I don't think you can rule out a dead planet. Aside from a few extinction events in which the vast majority of life on Earth did indeed die, the climate has changed slow enough for evolution to take its course. If what "naturally" would've happened over the course of a million years instead happens over centuries or even decades years then things become much more bleak.
- notfromhere 7y ago
  That's a neat fact, but the reality is that to support a human population of 7B+ with intensive agriculture and industrial production, the planet heating up is in fact devastating. Literally the science states that continued warming is going to have devastating impact on the environment and on the ability of industrial society to exist. We're facing ecological collapse on more than a few fronts (the collapse of fisheries, insect and bird populations, water crises in heavily populated regions, etc), why throw in a full-blown climate crisis in there as well.
  - garmaine 7y ago
    > That's a neat fact, but the reality is that to support a human population of 7B+ with intensive agriculture and industrial production, the planet heating up is in fact devastating. Are you sure of that? Increased CO2 causes plants to grow faster. Higher temperatures lead to greater precipitation. Shorter winter means you can squeeze in an additional growing season. In fact the fossil and sedimentary record shows that until recently in evolutionary history CO2 levels and temperatures were much higher, and the world was covered in tropical rainforest. If anything we are greening the world, reversing a desertification trend that started when grasses started out competing rainforest. Of course we are doing it while polluting the planet and acidifying the ocean, which are real problems.
    - notfromhere 7y ago
      Why are you assuming climate scientists have never thought of this?

garmaine 7y ago

> The choice is a stark one: either invest in technologies and infrastructure to decrease CO2 production, or give future generations the gift of a dead planet. The science says otherwise. Did you know that for most of Earth's evolutionary history the climate was far, far warmer with higher CO2 concentrations than today? Global warming has lots of negative ramifications, but it is not going to create a "dead planet." Spreading outright falsehoods doesn't help things.

shagmin 7y ago
It may just be hyperbole, but I don't think you can rule out a dead planet. Aside from a few extinction events in which the vast majority of life on Earth did indeed die, the climate has changed slow enough for evolution to take its course. If what "naturally" would've happened over the course of a million years instead happens over centuries or even decades years then things become much more bleak.
notfromhere 7y ago
That's a neat fact, but the reality is that to support a human population of 7B+ with intensive agriculture and industrial production, the planet heating up is in fact devastating. Literally the science states that continued warming is going to have devastating impact on the environment and on the ability of industrial society to exist. We're facing ecological collapse on more than a few fronts (the collapse of fisheries, insect and bird populations, water crises in heavily populated regions, etc), why throw in a full-blown climate crisis in there as well.
- garmaine 7y ago
  > That's a neat fact, but the reality is that to support a human population of 7B+ with intensive agriculture and industrial production, the planet heating up is in fact devastating. Are you sure of that? Increased CO2 causes plants to grow faster. Higher temperatures lead to greater precipitation. Shorter winter means you can squeeze in an additional growing season. In fact the fossil and sedimentary record shows that until recently in evolutionary history CO2 levels and temperatures were much higher, and the world was covered in tropical rainforest. If anything we are greening the world, reversing a desertification trend that started when grasses started out competing rainforest. Of course we are doing it while polluting the planet and acidifying the ocean, which are real problems.
  - notfromhere 7y ago
    Why are you assuming climate scientists have never thought of this?