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Wow 9 million a year die prematurely. The environmental crisis is manifold: we have the destruction of species and habitats, the global warming problem, and now
by Synaesthesia 5y ago
Wow 9 million a year die prematurely. The environmental crisis is manifold: we have the destruction of species and habitats, the global warming problem, and now also just trash - overuse of plastics is a huge problem, air pollution is pretty terrible.
- jacquesm 5y agoDestruction of habitats has been identified as a factor in previous pandemics. Global warming will also result in the destruction of habitats. All this stuff is linked.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y agoActually it is incomplete destruction of habitats that cause pandemics. If all the bats had been killed, then Covid would not have developed. If we can kill all the disease causing mosquitoes as well, then we will remove another huge cause of human disease.
- jimmygrapes 5y agoThis really didn't work too well for Mao
- ben_w 5y agoThat’s the first I’ve heard about Mao and environmental destruction (aimed at the elimination of a disease vector or otherwise, I’m not clear what you’re denying here), and a quick Google/Wikipedia didn’t help. What are you referring to?
- pjc50 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign : the extermination of sparrows resulted in an explosion of locusts. (The west has also collapsed bird populations in the service of agriculture, just over a longer period and combined with crashing the insect population as well)
- ben_w 5y agoThanks for the link! :)
- gyulai 5y agoI really don't think we should call the "environmental crisis" a "crisis". For example, smoking probably causes more deaths than Covid. So, while it may be perfectly true that things like smoking and pollution are bigger public health issues than Covid, we never spoke of a "smoking crisis", and justifiably so. The thing that makes a crisis into a crisis is that it's highly discrete in time and there is a temporally very limited window of opportunity to take action. This is true of Covid, but it's not true of smoking or pollution. A politican speaking of a climate "crisis" is engaging in the same psychological manipulation tactic as a radio commercial telling you to "act now on this limited-time offer", or a used-car salesman telling you that you have to buy that car right now, because this other guy definitely just called and is now on his way to the lot, and will likely buy the car you're interested in as soon as you leave the lot.
- modo_mario 5y ago>limited window of opportunity to take action Things like permafrost melting and releasing more methane?
- palae 5y ago> The thing that makes a crisis into a crisis is that it's highly discrete in time and there is a temporally very limited window of opportunity to take action. That is your definition, but not necessarily the one meant by others. From Merriam-Webster (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crisis https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crisis): "Essential Meaning of crisis : a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention" [...] Definition 3b: "a situation that has reached a critical phase // the environmental crisis"
- gyulai 5y agoMy point exactly. The dictionary editors must have noticed that "environmental crisis" entered into common parlance, and didn't fit the pre-existing definitions of "crisis", so they had to invent a new definition to be able to cover it. Besides: The definition is a really bad one, as it's circular.