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Corona is actually GOOD NEWS. I'm not kidding. What the world needs is a severe recession that stops flying, overconsumption, and overworking. The longer the re

Corona is actually GOOD NEWS. I'm not kidding. What the world needs is a severe recession that stops flying, overconsumption, and overworking. The longer the recession lasts the better. It's the only thing that can effectively slow global warming. Climate change is a global threat, coronavirus could be a blessing in disguise.

gambiting 7y ago
If you were an alien on a spaceship watching us from orbit - sure. But once things start affecting you it just becomes grim reality. Personally I'm stressed as balls because my mum runs a few retail shops and if the situation doesn't improve rapidly she will literally face bankrupcy. It's hard for me to look at it and say "hey, it's great because it stops overconsumption!". And that's not even considering that she or anyone else I know might get ill and I won't be able to go home because all flights to my home country have been cancelled and the borders closed so even if I had to I have extremely limited options for getting home. Like, I agree with you in principle - but as a human being, I think your opinion in extremely priviledged and something you can only say sitting behind a computer screen shielded from real life.
- bjourne 7y ago
  Actually I think you are the one with a privileged word view. We know that in a decade or so climate change will come to affect tens of millions of people who will become refugees. Crop yields will fail and lots of diseases much worse than corona will spread. Tough luck that you can't get fly home but that doesn't affect my main point. International air travel is unsustainable and is KILLING OUR PLANET! We as a species have two choices; either we let our global economy collapse or we let our global ecosystem collapse. I know what my choice is.
  - rl3 7y ago
    Or we just solve it with any number of engineering fixes, minus the abject human misery a global recession involves.
pjmlp 7y ago
If the last century has taught us anything, is that whatever comes after a severe recession is not something that one should be wishing for.
kranner 7y ago
That may be the good news, but the bad news is that a lot of people will run out of money for basic necessities like food and shelter. It might have been different if every country had evolved to allow people to survive economically during recessions with something like a basic income but that's generally not the case.
- bjourne 7y ago
  Which tells you how sick our economy is. A virus is spreading which causes people to, no fault of their own, to lose their jobs, homes and go into starvation. Governments around the world are spending billions and trillions to prop up failing stock markets but almost nothing to provide for real people in real need.
  - marcinzm 7y ago
    Without an economy there is no tax money and without tax money there is no way for the government to help people in need. So then the government prints money which drives up inflation. Eventually society effectively collapses and no one is helped. It's happened before. So by your own logic of greater good trumps all the economy trumps helping people.
    - bjourne 7y ago
      What? I didn't write that having an economy is a bad thing.I wrote that our current global economy is sick and rotten to the core. It urgently needs to be replaced with something that works for all of us rather than the few before it dooms us all.
      - marcinzm 7y ago
        Replaced with what? Attempt to replace the economy generally just end with a different few controlling things (the new dictator, the party leaders, the rich, etc.). Saying "tear it all down and replace it with magic pixie dust" just ends in mass death.
teekert 7y ago
Yeah, until your parents die and your kid aswell because the IC is overloaded.
albertTJames 7y ago
Let's talk in a year when 60%-80% of the population will have been infected and millions will have died. Maybe you have no one you love who is in the high risk group, but I do.
jmiskovic 7y ago
Periodic recessions are not really a sustainable solution for environment. The industry will try to catch up and recuperate losses and we'll be where we've started. Plus the investment in green tech will be less of priority in following months. The one good thing that comes out will be improvements in home office and home education culture. Better tools, more online materials, wider acceptance.
matwood 7y ago
It's a recession when your neighbor loses their job, it's a depression when you lose yours.
TheAlchemist 7y ago
This is also my thinking. There will be a lot of short term pain - can't get around it. But if we look long term, the more I think about it, the more optimistic I get. 3 months ago, in many rich countries, a lot of young talented people were doing "bullshit" jobs that had 0.000001% impact on the results of their company. I don't even mention the fact that many were working on completely useless stuff. This will be a quick adjustement for every company - keep only people you really need. Sure - short term economic choc and governements absolutely need to step in and help people adjust. But long term - this is a great news. It's a brand new world right there - you have a good, idea (not a bullshit app nobody cares about) - go out, there will be plenty of opportunities once the dust settles and governements will help and fund this. I actually think, this is the perfect time for European Union (and most countries for that matter) to launch huge scale projects - high speed rail in whole Europe, this kind of things. We will have quite a lot of competent workers available, interest rates are 0% for any foreseable future and the benefits for the future would be huge. Concerning climate - this is the best, by a huge margin, news we've ever heard. I'm eager to see what big cities will look like with 0 traffic. We already start to see the best in people - young offering help for elders (that they barely noticed until 2 weeks ago). No doubt we will see some of the worst too, but I believe it will be hugely outweighted by the good. So yeah, this situation is very hard, but as most hard things in live, it definitely can end up as a huge net postive. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.
marcinzm 7y ago
I actually like humans and prefer that tens or hundreds of millions don't suffer (homeless, starving, stressed, sick, etc.). I mean, may as well have a small nuclear war and kill 30% of humanity as well if the goal is slowing climate change at all costs. edit: Btw, your proposal is exactly the sort of thinking that got us in this climate mess in the first place. You're putting your desire (climate change in this case) higher than the overall well being of people. Republicans put their desire (money and business) higher than the overall well being of people (including future people impacted by climate change). Lack of empathy is not something to admire and generally results in everyone being worse off.

gambiting 7y ago

If you were an alien on a spaceship watching us from orbit - sure. But once things start affecting you it just becomes grim reality. Personally I'm stressed as balls because my mum runs a few retail shops and if the situation doesn't improve rapidly she will literally face bankrupcy. It's hard for me to look at it and say "hey, it's great because it stops overconsumption!". And that's not even considering that she or anyone else I know might get ill and I won't be able to go home because all flights to my home country have been cancelled and the borders closed so even if I had to I have extremely limited options for getting home. Like, I agree with you in principle - but as a human being, I think your opinion in extremely priviledged and something you can only say sitting behind a computer screen shielded from real life.

bjourne 7y ago
Actually I think you are the one with a privileged word view. We know that in a decade or so climate change will come to affect tens of millions of people who will become refugees. Crop yields will fail and lots of diseases much worse than corona will spread. Tough luck that you can't get fly home but that doesn't affect my main point. International air travel is unsustainable and is KILLING OUR PLANET! We as a species have two choices; either we let our global economy collapse or we let our global ecosystem collapse. I know what my choice is.
- rl3 7y ago
  Or we just solve it with any number of engineering fixes, minus the abject human misery a global recession involves.

pjmlp 7y ago

If the last century has taught us anything, is that whatever comes after a severe recession is not something that one should be wishing for.

kranner 7y ago

That may be the good news, but the bad news is that a lot of people will run out of money for basic necessities like food and shelter. It might have been different if every country had evolved to allow people to survive economically during recessions with something like a basic income but that's generally not the case.

bjourne 7y ago
Which tells you how sick our economy is. A virus is spreading which causes people to, no fault of their own, to lose their jobs, homes and go into starvation. Governments around the world are spending billions and trillions to prop up failing stock markets but almost nothing to provide for real people in real need.
- marcinzm 7y ago
  Without an economy there is no tax money and without tax money there is no way for the government to help people in need. So then the government prints money which drives up inflation. Eventually society effectively collapses and no one is helped. It's happened before. So by your own logic of greater good trumps all the economy trumps helping people.
  - bjourne 7y ago
    What? I didn't write that having an economy is a bad thing.I wrote that our current global economy is sick and rotten to the core. It urgently needs to be replaced with something that works for all of us rather than the few before it dooms us all.
    - marcinzm 7y ago
      Replaced with what? Attempt to replace the economy generally just end with a different few controlling things (the new dictator, the party leaders, the rich, etc.). Saying "tear it all down and replace it with magic pixie dust" just ends in mass death.

teekert 7y ago

Yeah, until your parents die and your kid aswell because the IC is overloaded.

albertTJames 7y ago

Let's talk in a year when 60%-80% of the population will have been infected and millions will have died. Maybe you have no one you love who is in the high risk group, but I do.

jmiskovic 7y ago

Periodic recessions are not really a sustainable solution for environment. The industry will try to catch up and recuperate losses and we'll be where we've started. Plus the investment in green tech will be less of priority in following months. The one good thing that comes out will be improvements in home office and home education culture. Better tools, more online materials, wider acceptance.

matwood 7y ago

It's a recession when your neighbor loses their job, it's a depression when you lose yours.

TheAlchemist 7y ago

This is also my thinking. There will be a lot of short term pain - can't get around it. But if we look long term, the more I think about it, the more optimistic I get. 3 months ago, in many rich countries, a lot of young talented people were doing "bullshit" jobs that had 0.000001% impact on the results of their company. I don't even mention the fact that many were working on completely useless stuff. This will be a quick adjustement for every company - keep only people you really need. Sure - short term economic choc and governements absolutely need to step in and help people adjust. But long term - this is a great news. It's a brand new world right there - you have a good, idea (not a bullshit app nobody cares about) - go out, there will be plenty of opportunities once the dust settles and governements will help and fund this. I actually think, this is the perfect time for European Union (and most countries for that matter) to launch huge scale projects - high speed rail in whole Europe, this kind of things. We will have quite a lot of competent workers available, interest rates are 0% for any foreseable future and the benefits for the future would be huge. Concerning climate - this is the best, by a huge margin, news we've ever heard. I'm eager to see what big cities will look like with 0 traffic. We already start to see the best in people - young offering help for elders (that they barely noticed until 2 weeks ago). No doubt we will see some of the worst too, but I believe it will be hugely outweighted by the good. So yeah, this situation is very hard, but as most hard things in live, it definitely can end up as a huge net postive. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

marcinzm 7y ago

I actually like humans and prefer that tens or hundreds of millions don't suffer (homeless, starving, stressed, sick, etc.). I mean, may as well have a small nuclear war and kill 30% of humanity as well if the goal is slowing climate change at all costs. edit: Btw, your proposal is exactly the sort of thinking that got us in this climate mess in the first place. You're putting your desire (climate change in this case) higher than the overall well being of people. Republicans put their desire (money and business) higher than the overall well being of people (including future people impacted by climate change). Lack of empathy is not something to admire and generally results in everyone being worse off.