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Plug the leaking holes in the boat and worry about getting the sail replaced when you get to shore. It's certainly easy to brush it off if you're not a murdere

• throwaway894345 5y ago
  > Plug the leaking holes in the boat and worry about getting the sail replaced when you get to shore. This is meaninglessly abstract. Anyone can offer trite platitudes. Concretely, how do we meet climate targets by the end of the century without China's participation? What additional burden does that put on the rest of the world, and how are we going to meet that when no one is on track to meet their current obligations? > It's certainly easy to brush it off if you're not a murdered Uyghur. 1. No one is brushing anything off. 2. What's the Uyghur death toll, approximately? 3. I can similarly imply that you're being too cavalier about the people who will die of starvation, disease, and poverty, but I don't think these sorts of ad hominem are very productive.
  • jjeaff 5y ago
    You seem awfully convinced that this is an either/or situation. I see no direct evidence that trying to help the Uyghurs necessarily inhibits our ability to pressure China to slow their climate destruction.
    • throwaway894345 5y ago
      I think we can try to help the Uyghurs, but I think we have to do so in a way that allows China to save face (in contrast to the sort of cathartic, show-China-who's-boss sentiment upthread). But yeah, Washington and Beijing don't get along well, and a very fragile peace is emerging on climate. I think an aggressive push on the Uyghur issue would set back Chinese climate policy by years, and scientists seem to be telling us that we need to make a certain amount of progress by the end of the decade. So yeah, it kind of feels like a dichotomy to me.