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>> This is terrifying Why? It’s definitely concerning but is it in the same league as say the fact America appears to have lost desire to retain its leadershi

>> This is terrifying Why? It’s definitely concerning but is it in the same league as say the fact America appears to have lost desire to retain its leadership in the world? Are we ready for another country to decide to take a shot at that role? That sounds like a terrifying prospect to me because i just can’t see that happening without bloodshed. In years gone past, whatever the crisis, America would step up and lead. Over the past few years it’s chosen, as is its right to do so, to step back from world leadership (trade, peace keeping, covid response, immigration, climate change, etc etc) What about a super volcano eruption tomorrow, we know one is coming but we don’t know when yet we do very little to prepare for it, e.g. post massive disaster food crop growing research etc. What about the fact that electrical grids are creaking at the seams today in many countries and that we know it only takes around 2 weeks of no electrical grid to reach catastrophic changes to way of life (hospitals offline, perishable food supplies mostly gone, commerce halted etc etc) The really terrifying things don’t get much in the way of discourse. How can this possibly be in the same league as the terrifying stuff we’re a bit scared to talk about because there aren’t really any great answers and there’s no way to predict when so we have an easy way to ignore it all.

markdown 6y ago
> In years gone past, whatever the crisis, America would step up and lead. Many would argue that America was the one who created many of those crises in the first place. American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change, so a loss in status is absolutely warranted. > The really terrifying things don’t get much in the way of discourse. How can this possibly be in the same league as the terrifying stuff we’re a bit scared to talk about because there aren’t really any great answers and there’s no way to predict when so we have an easy way to ignore it all. A super volcano eruption is beyond our control, so there's no point getting worked up about that. Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change.
- kuzimoto 6y ago
  > American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change This sort of alarmist language makes it really difficult to take anything you said seriously. I'm fairly confident most people think climate change is concerning, but not "on the brink of destruction" "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history. > Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change. Interesting, because the United States has actually been lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and total output absolutely pales in comparison to China which has seen nearly exponential growth [0]. This may be completely wrong, but it seems like a majority of climate change talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do. Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_...
  - markdown 6y ago
    > I'm fairly confident most people think climate change is concerning, but not "on the brink of destruction" Lucky for them, those people jus haven't yet experienced the destruction of a category five tropical cyclone. > Interesting, because the United States has actually been lowering carbon dioxide emissions You can use this excuse when talking to children or US Republicans, but it doesn't work with people who have more than half a brain. I live on a quarter of an acre. I could use my property to make X, or I can just buy X from my neighbour and make the claim that my property isn't used to make X, and is therefore uncontaminated and clean. You can't get China to make your polluting garbage, and then blame China for being the worlds polluter. It's Americans who demand massive trucks to drive on hours-long commutes every day instead of building public transport; who fight wars for fossil fuels to burn. > Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. Not interesting at all. Quite depressing actually.
  - vagrantJin 6y ago
    > "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history. European capitalism >Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad. Tell that to the Middle East, parts of South East Asia and South Americas. > talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do. Now we get to the nub. The key word here is responsibility. And dont look at production level CO2 emission. The US eclipses every nation on earth when looking at per person energy consumption and resulting CO2 footprint[0] If India and China's citizens lived like Americans, it would be a global catastrophe. Those two nations are still developing their grids and can't pour money into alternative energy industries and R&D because of cost and scale[1] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electri... [1] https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-rdd-budgets-2020 https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-rdd-budgets-20... Post script: I'm a neutral observer. But take everything I say with a truckload of salt.

markdown 6y ago

> In years gone past, whatever the crisis, America would step up and lead. Many would argue that America was the one who created many of those crises in the first place. American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change, so a loss in status is absolutely warranted. > The really terrifying things don’t get much in the way of discourse. How can this possibly be in the same league as the terrifying stuff we’re a bit scared to talk about because there aren’t really any great answers and there’s no way to predict when so we have an easy way to ignore it all. A super volcano eruption is beyond our control, so there's no point getting worked up about that. Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change.

kuzimoto 6y ago
> American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change This sort of alarmist language makes it really difficult to take anything you said seriously. I'm fairly confident most people think climate change is concerning, but not "on the brink of destruction" "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history. > Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change. Interesting, because the United States has actually been lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and total output absolutely pales in comparison to China which has seen nearly exponential growth [0]. This may be completely wrong, but it seems like a majority of climate change talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do. Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_...
- markdown 6y ago
  > I'm fairly confident most people think climate change is concerning, but not "on the brink of destruction" Lucky for them, those people jus haven't yet experienced the destruction of a category five tropical cyclone. > Interesting, because the United States has actually been lowering carbon dioxide emissions You can use this excuse when talking to children or US Republicans, but it doesn't work with people who have more than half a brain. I live on a quarter of an acre. I could use my property to make X, or I can just buy X from my neighbour and make the claim that my property isn't used to make X, and is therefore uncontaminated and clean. You can't get China to make your polluting garbage, and then blame China for being the worlds polluter. It's Americans who demand massive trucks to drive on hours-long commutes every day instead of building public transport; who fight wars for fossil fuels to burn. > Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. Not interesting at all. Quite depressing actually.
- vagrantJin 6y ago
  > "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history. European capitalism >Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad. Tell that to the Middle East, parts of South East Asia and South Americas. > talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do. Now we get to the nub. The key word here is responsibility. And dont look at production level CO2 emission. The US eclipses every nation on earth when looking at per person energy consumption and resulting CO2 footprint[0] If India and China's citizens lived like Americans, it would be a global catastrophe. Those two nations are still developing their grids and can't pour money into alternative energy industries and R&D because of cost and scale[1] [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electricity_consumption https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electri... [1] https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-rdd-budgets-2020 https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-rdd-budgets-20... Post script: I'm a neutral observer. But take everything I say with a truckload of salt.