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Sadly, there is maybe one comment here that engages with the actual article instead of the link-bait title. The nut of the article is: > Although there’s now a
by istjohn 5y ago
Sadly, there is maybe one comment here that engages with the actual article instead of the link-bait title. The nut of the article is:
> Although there’s now a consensus that human activities have irreversible environmental effects, researchers disagree on the solutions — especially if that involves curbing economic growth. That disagreement is impeding action. It’s time for researchers to end their debate. The world needs them to focus on the greater goals of stopping catastrophic environmental destruction and improving well-being.
It goes on to describe the debate over whether we should intentionally slow economic growth for environmental reasons.
- EricE 5y agoIntentionally slow? That's the policy of our current administration in the US and look at the UTTER disaster it is continuing to unfold into. The problem with any pessimistic prediction - including the recent hysteria over "global warming" - is it completely discounts the human ability to innovate and overcome problems. So HELL NO I don't want any egg-head interference such as deliberately slowing anything. The US is already the global leader in reducing carbon emissions and that sure as hell didn't happen by slowing our economic growth. Our economic growth FUNDED and FUELED that capability. You NEVER improve by deliberately tying all your hands behind your back. How freaking stupid do you have to be to think that's even reasonable or "intelligent" line of reason? It's the same reason central planning fails MISERABLY compared to open, independent systems such as capitalism. Innovation. Economic natural selection. Wisdom of the crowd. People these days love to slam open markets - the problem is we haven't had anything resembling an open market for some time. I don't think we should have unfettered open markets, I do think there is a role for some regulation - but we have swung so far into the regulation side (mostly drive by lobbying/market leaders to further consolidation - COVID restrictions were the catalyst from the greatest consolidation of wealth to the largest entities we have seen in recent human history) that the term open market is used but it references very little of what we have today. So yeah, F off with this intentional meddling. NO thanks.
- wing-_-nuts 5y agoIf you're an advocate for markets and innovation solving climate change, I'd gather you support a hefty but revenue neutral carbon tax to properly price in the harm emissions are currently doing?
- uoaei 5y agoApparently taxes are "meddling" but setting (fixing) prices by (perhaps consortia of) private actors is not.
- uoaei 5y ago> The US is already the global leader in reducing carbon emissions and that sure as hell didn't happen by slowing our economic growth. How would we reduce carbon emissions that much if we hadn't already spewed so much into the atmosphere, primarily due to the dogmatic and incredibly myopic pursuit of GDP growth? If I pour a few hundred thousand barrels of oil into Mono Lake, then initiate a half-baked, under-funded plan to pay 10k interns to use kitchen sponges to soak it up, I can claim I am "doing more than anyone to clean up the mess that is Mono Lake", but conveniently I have hidden my culpability in the problem's genesis. An aside: I am perpetually amused by the self-contradictory nature of capitalist-minded people trashing on Biden. You know, the whole "this administration is fucking everything up" followed by praise for "wisdom of the crowds". The crowd voted in the current administration! And not only that, but Biden is one of the best capitalists that the US has ever seen. He has done more to entrench the power of capital than many before him, and he has used the pandemic (like Trump before him) to precisely that end -- unflinchingly and with great aplomb. The maneuvers you see by this administration are designed not to sell out American interests but to use a tiny trickle to assuage the populace. There is a real threat of a large-scale revolt on American soil in the next 3-10 years, judging based on current trajectory and historical analogy. Inequality just keeps getting worse, and if you don't provide people with some outlet they will take it for themselves.
- jaegerpicker 5y agoThe US is a global leader?? It's ranked 55th out of 60 in the latest CCPI (Climate Change Performance Index). It literally isn't the best at any part of Climate Change reduction. The countries that rank the highest? Democratic Socialist countries like Denmark and Sweden. Countries with HEAVILY regulated capitalist systems and markets. Besides depending on Innovation that may or may not come is a terrible plan. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-02-28/denmark-shines-u-s-lags-in-latest-climate-protection-rankings https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-02-... https://ccpi.org/wp-content/uploads/CCPI-2022-Results_2021-11-10_A4-1.pdf https://ccpi.org/wp-content/uploads/CCPI-2022-Results_2021-1...