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Future generations will see our use of plastic like we see asbestos, HCFCs, and leaded gasoline. Nobody denies its utility. It just kills people and wildlife. O

by spodek 5y ago

Future generations will see our use of plastic like we see asbestos, HCFCs, and leaded gasoline. Nobody denies its utility. It just kills people and wildlife. Once we ban at least single-use plastic we'll recoil with horror at what we did and how long we took after realizing what we were doing to stop ourselves.

thathndude 5y ago
I’ve recently come to see this truth. Like reading the vintage ads recommending cocaine to help your tooth ache. I just hope the future finds a way to undo so much of the damage.
- freeflight 5y ago
  > Like reading the vintage ads recommending cocaine to help your tooth ache. Cocaine didn't result in large scale environmental damage, to this day it's still in widespread medical use as a local anesthetic. Imho a much more apt example would be something like "plutonium toothpaste" and the fact how humanity has irreversibly changed Earths biosphere by introducing large quantities of atmospheric plutonium 239 during the countless nuclear weapon tests [0]. Any acknowledgement of potential deadly consequences out of that mostly exist in some fringe awareness [1], and pretty much never comes up in any debates around the risks and dangers of nuclear as a source of energy generation. [0] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096340215581357 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096340215581357 [1] https://qz.com/1163140/us-nuclear-tests-killed-american-civilians-on-a-scale-comparable-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/ https://qz.com/1163140/us-nuclear-tests-killed-american-civi...
- spodek 5y ago
  > I just hope the future finds a way to undo so much of the damage. Future? We can undo it now -- just with life improvements and simplifications, I've dropped my emissions 90%, according to online calculators. I take two years to fill a load of trash at home, which used to be weekly. Many other changes. And one person changing is exactly what causes more people to change. As a result, Mayors, Congressmembers, and other politicians, CEOs, champion athletes, and more have come on my podcast, helping lead large communities. The Hacker News community is particularly recalcitrant, believing that Mars and fusion are simple and will solve everything while flying less or having fewer children is against human nature and solve nothing, but there's variation. Systemic change begins with personal transformation.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    That sounds like work and inconvenience though. Let's just hit the snooze button and hope the mighty people of the future can figure it out se we don't have to make any changes to our lifestyle.
- AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
  Cocaine is still sometimes used as a dental analgesic.
gruez 5y ago
[deleted]
- spodek 5y ago
  HCFCs are refrigerants that deplete ozone. They are not made from corn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon
refurb 5y ago
No doubt we’ll recoil I know horror, but we’ll probably recoil in horror at plenty of things we don’t know better about…that’s progress. Thankfully we don’t judge we don’t judge people who made errors in the past out of ignorance. ;)

by spodek 5y ago

thathndude 5y ago

I’ve recently come to see this truth. Like reading the vintage ads recommending cocaine to help your tooth ache. I just hope the future finds a way to undo so much of the damage.

freeflight 5y ago
> Like reading the vintage ads recommending cocaine to help your tooth ache. Cocaine didn't result in large scale environmental damage, to this day it's still in widespread medical use as a local anesthetic. Imho a much more apt example would be something like "plutonium toothpaste" and the fact how humanity has irreversibly changed Earths biosphere by introducing large quantities of atmospheric plutonium 239 during the countless nuclear weapon tests [0]. Any acknowledgement of potential deadly consequences out of that mostly exist in some fringe awareness [1], and pretty much never comes up in any debates around the risks and dangers of nuclear as a source of energy generation. [0] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096340215581357 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0096340215581357 [1] https://qz.com/1163140/us-nuclear-tests-killed-american-civilians-on-a-scale-comparable-to-hiroshima-and-nagasaki/ https://qz.com/1163140/us-nuclear-tests-killed-american-civi...
spodek 5y ago
> I just hope the future finds a way to undo so much of the damage. Future? We can undo it now -- just with life improvements and simplifications, I've dropped my emissions 90%, according to online calculators. I take two years to fill a load of trash at home, which used to be weekly. Many other changes. And one person changing is exactly what causes more people to change. As a result, Mayors, Congressmembers, and other politicians, CEOs, champion athletes, and more have come on my podcast, helping lead large communities. The Hacker News community is particularly recalcitrant, believing that Mars and fusion are simple and will solve everything while flying less or having fewer children is against human nature and solve nothing, but there's variation. Systemic change begins with personal transformation.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  That sounds like work and inconvenience though. Let's just hit the snooze button and hope the mighty people of the future can figure it out se we don't have to make any changes to our lifestyle.
AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
Cocaine is still sometimes used as a dental analgesic.

gruez 5y ago

[deleted]

spodek 5y ago
HCFCs are refrigerants that deplete ozone. They are not made from corn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon

refurb 5y ago

No doubt we’ll recoil I know horror, but we’ll probably recoil in horror at plenty of things we don’t know better about…that’s progress. Thankfully we don’t judge we don’t judge people who made errors in the past out of ignorance. ;)