4 ms·

I'm an undergraduate student and in no financial position to start or join a company. This just further illustrates that a large segment of society is powerles

• CalRobert 5y ago
  If I might ask - how are you not in a position to join a company? Is getting a job not a normal thing to do when you're in a rough spot financially? Climate.careers might be worth a look (I'm not affiliated, just keeping an eye on it myself)
  • quenix 5y ago
    Thanks for the link.
• FabHK 5y ago
  I'd look at the positive trends. Dire warnings have, in the past, often lead to improvements that prevented the worst outcomes. Fatalism and resignation are not good nor helpful for you as an individual, nor for society as a whole (they also forestall meaningful corrective action). The fact is that large trends have mostly pointed in the right direction over the last century or so, on a worldwide scale. (Examples: [1]-[17]) Some literature I'd look at as counterpoints: - Steve Pinker, Enlightenment Now [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_Now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_Now] - Matt Ridley, The Rational Optimist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rational_Optimist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rational_Optimist] - Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness:_Ten_Reasons_We%27re_Wrong_About_the_World_–_and_Why_Things_Are_Better_Than_You_Think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness:_Ten_Reasons_We%27...] - Julian Simon, The State of Humanity Note: Some of these writers and arguments are co-opted by rabid libertarians or ideologues that argue that all is well, there is nothing to worry about, and nothing needs to be done (and certainly no government regulation of business) [N1]. That is nonsense, and not a position I advocate. There are many worrisome trends, and we have to do something about them. But, there have been predictions of doom since the dawn of mankind (see: Malthus [D1], Ehrlich [D2]), and they have not panned out, either. Conclusion/TL;DR: Things have largely gotten better for humanity over long timeframes. There are still many problems now (inequality, climate, etc.), but if we apply ourselves, there is a good chance we can tackle them. Footnotes [1] Life Expectancy [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=chart&time=1770..2019&country=Africa~Asia~Europe~OWID_WRL~Americas~Oceania https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=chart...] [2] HDI [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-development-index-escosura https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-development-index-e...] [3] Child Mortality [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?tab=chart https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality?tab=chart] [4] Suicide rates (not improving, but not worsening) [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-rates-by-country https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/suicide-rates-by-country] [5] Air pollution [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-air-pollution?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-air-poll...] [6] Polio [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-estimated-paralytic-polio-cases-by-world-region https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/number-of-estimated-paral...] [7] Cholera [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cholera-deaths-in-great-britain https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cholera-deaths-in-great-b...] [8] Tuberculosis, Malaria, HIV/Aids [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-from-infections-of-currently-noneradicable-diseases?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deaths-from-infections-of...] [9] Anemia in children [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-anemia-in-children https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-anemia-in-c...] [10] Access to electricity [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity?tab=chart https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-w...] [11] Death from indoor air pollution [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-by-source-from-indoor-air-pollution?tab=chart https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-by-source-from...] [12] Death from unsafe sanitation [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-deaths-unsafe-sanitation?tab=chart https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-deaths-unsafe-sanit...] [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-sanitation?tab=chart https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-sanitation?ta...] [13] Share of people who say they're happy [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-people-who-say-they-are-happy https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-people-who-say-t...] [14] Use of agricultural land per capita [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agricultural-area-per-capita https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agricultural-area-per-cap...] [15] Forests [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/forest-area-as-share-of-land-area?tab=chart&time=earliest..latest&country=England~Scotland~FRA~USA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/forest-area-as-share-of-l...] [16] Famine [https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-run https://ourworldindata.org/famine-mortality-over-the-long-ru...] [17] Child labour [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/various-measures-of-child-labour-incidence https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/various-measures-of-child...] [https://ourworldindata.org/child-labor#long-run-history-of-child-labour-in-today-s-rich-countries https://ourworldindata.org/child-labor#long-run-history-of-c...] [N1] Julian Simon himself was one of those over-optimistic libertarians. But the data he collected is still eye-opening. [D1] Malthus: "This constant effort as constantly tends to subject the lower classes of the society to distress and to prevent any great permanent amelioration of their condition." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_P...] [D2] Ehrlich, in 1968: "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb] But a UN report in 2010: 'the percentage of the world's population who qualify as "undernourished" has fallen by more than half, from 33 percent to about 16 percent, since Ehrlich published The Population Bomb.' See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon–Ehrlich_wager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon–Ehrlich_wager