5 ms·
The main issue now is how little time we have left. We're already past the tipping point, and there's about a 30-50 year horizon before it's too late to do anyt
by kstenerud 5y ago
The main issue now is how little time we have left. We're already past the tipping point, and there's about a 30-50 year horizon before it's too late to do anything at all.
This means that the following are going to take too long:
- "Doing your part", i.e. the regular "don't eat meat", "consume environmentally friendly things", and all those things that will only work over a horizon of 100+ years.
- Accumulating a ton of wealth and then using it to lobby. This would have worked 50 years ago but we need people to use this kind of big money NOW.
- Helping activists set up their websites and other tech things. We're past the point where activism alone will save us.
Our world has just started runaway heating, and Arctic methane is now being released, which is 100x worse than carbon. The ONLY thing that can save us at this point is a hail Mary shot of sequestration of greenhouse gases and at the same time, active cooling of the planet. Build this kind of tech, or join others building it. There are a few companies coming out that do this kind of thing. We need breathing room above all else, because even with tech 50 years is very little time.
Edit: Aaaand now the downvotes. I don't know why I even bother contributing here.
- kortex 5y agoMaybe the "too late to do anything at all" line is setting people off? I don't think it's hyperbolic in the least. There's a very non-trivial chance that some hammer falls in some way that too much damage is done too fast to prevent a snowball effect of war/famine/disease before we manage some big tech geo-engineering solution. We are very reliant on industry/automation as an efficiency multiplier for sustinance. Really, anything that disrupts our ability to automate in the long term (power/water/comms/logistics/chip fab), disrupts our ability to farm industrially, which lowers Earth's carrying capacity. Which risks a large die-off, which risks more of the above. Humans are really bad at anticipating cascade failures.
- bluedevil2k 5y agoI don’t think you deserve downvotes, but you’re giving the human ingenuity and technology gains too little credit to fix this in the future with your “it’s too late” apocalyptic prophecy.