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It’s striking to me that Hacker News has a significant audience of flat earthers. Don’t look up, right? Let’s be clear, human caused climate change is very real

It’s striking to me that Hacker News has a significant audience of flat earthers. Don’t look up, right? Let’s be clear, human caused climate change is very real. Rigorous science confirms this and CO2 + methane levels are now driving very visible and catastrophic weather all over the world.

UncleEntity 4y ago
“The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.”
origin_path 4y ago
Don't Look Up is a film with a story that makes absolutely no sense and constantly contradicts itself, so it might not be the best slogan to use: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look-up https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look...
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  > Don't Look Up is a film with a story that makes absolutely no sense and constantly contradicts itself Honestly that sounds like a pretty good model of my life so far.
  - throw827474737 4y ago
    And a pretty good model of how humanity is acting :-)
- carapace 4y ago
  That's a bad review. The movie was a satire, it's not supposed to make sense like a normal movie would, rather it's holding up a funhouse mirror to current events. For example, SA presents as a contradiction: > It depicts elites as simultaneously incompetent and omnicompetent. But this is exactly what we see in the real world. Take the iPhone for example: a marvel of technology with a cretinous supply chain and amoral-at-best business model. Or VW, great cars but we could do without the emissions scandal. Or the tech industry, great tech (mostly) but they turn around and have a that "no poaching" scandal. Bankers have their LIBOR scandal, etc. Really, "simultaneously incompetent and omnicompetent" is the order of the day, yeah?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rob_c 4y ago
You realise the nuance is in blaming where the methane production is coming from as well as the c02. There's a huge amount of shifting the "who is going to take any responsibility" which has made this pointlessly political and just wastes time and effort. This isn't helped by certain parties "reviewing" scientific data until it's massaged into narratives that they can push. (Again on all sides of whatever political spectrum you want to draw) Unfortunately few take a step back and realise we need to try to get people to stop pointing fingers and work together, but that doesn't sell news, allow people to feel righteous or give people the ability to say "I told you". But it gets the job done. It's asif politics is full of the worst of middle managers unfortunately.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  I wonder what it is that people actually want? That's the part I can never figure out, and they never seem to be able to articulate, at least truthfully. Like, I'm fine to say that I'd be OK to see this planet burned to the ground once I've had my fun with it. I mean, I feel a bit sorry for the humans who might come after, but that's a problem I'm not going to contribute to, so whatever. This seems to be the mainstream opinion as well, based on our current trajectory and actions, but it's gauche to say it plainly and so we create rationalizations to see ourselves as better people.
  - pif 4y ago
    > This seems to be the mainstream opinion as well, I don't agree with you. There are many people who do care about future generations. And maybe there are other people that share my opinion: 1) future generations deserve our attention and our best efforts, but only the efforts that can have an actual impact are worth to be taken. Going back to Stone Age for the others to keep enjoying modern comfort and spoiling my efforts any way? No, thanks! Convincing peoples around the world to formally engage in reducing emissions and then respecting the agreement? Sign me in! 2) despite our best efforts, we know that climate change is here to stay. Let's stop pretending that we can revert it in a couple of years! We are having several droughts, and it's likely they will be back next year: we need to act during this winter to save some water for next summer; we have to stop now to export produce from California. Not in twenty years, not in five years, but now! The ocean level is going up, and it will keep going up: stop building on the coast, stop moving to coastal cities built on flat terrain. Stop it now!
pif 4y ago
Thank you! Really, thank you for posting a fact-based statement without attaching your political opinion. I think facts would be accepted more easily if there were presented to the general public without attaching the personal opinion of the writer.
linuxftw 4y ago
There has always been catastropic weather. The climate has always been changing. The current tag line is 'climate change is accelerating due to human released CO2.' I believe human released CO2 is more or less inconsequential. We face far bigger problems with industrial chemical pollution. Put your money where your mouth is and quit buy any good made from materials from environmentally hostile countries. Advocate for banning imports from environmental destroyers. As long as we keep talking about CO2, we're not going to make any progress and we're going to exhaust all of our other precious resources long before we burn to death.

UncleEntity 4y ago

“The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.”

origin_path 4y ago

Don't Look Up is a film with a story that makes absolutely no sense and constantly contradicts itself, so it might not be the best slogan to use: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look-up https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/movie-review-dont-look...

hotpotamus 4y ago
> Don't Look Up is a film with a story that makes absolutely no sense and constantly contradicts itself Honestly that sounds like a pretty good model of my life so far.
- throw827474737 4y ago
  And a pretty good model of how humanity is acting :-)
carapace 4y ago
That's a bad review. The movie was a satire, it's not supposed to make sense like a normal movie would, rather it's holding up a funhouse mirror to current events. For example, SA presents as a contradiction: > It depicts elites as simultaneously incompetent and omnicompetent. But this is exactly what we see in the real world. Take the iPhone for example: a marvel of technology with a cretinous supply chain and amoral-at-best business model. Or VW, great cars but we could do without the emissions scandal. Or the tech industry, great tech (mostly) but they turn around and have a that "no poaching" scandal. Bankers have their LIBOR scandal, etc. Really, "simultaneously incompetent and omnicompetent" is the order of the day, yeah?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rob_c 4y ago

You realise the nuance is in blaming where the methane production is coming from as well as the c02. There's a huge amount of shifting the "who is going to take any responsibility" which has made this pointlessly political and just wastes time and effort. This isn't helped by certain parties "reviewing" scientific data until it's massaged into narratives that they can push. (Again on all sides of whatever political spectrum you want to draw) Unfortunately few take a step back and realise we need to try to get people to stop pointing fingers and work together, but that doesn't sell news, allow people to feel righteous or give people the ability to say "I told you". But it gets the job done. It's asif politics is full of the worst of middle managers unfortunately.

hotpotamus 4y ago
I wonder what it is that people actually want? That's the part I can never figure out, and they never seem to be able to articulate, at least truthfully. Like, I'm fine to say that I'd be OK to see this planet burned to the ground once I've had my fun with it. I mean, I feel a bit sorry for the humans who might come after, but that's a problem I'm not going to contribute to, so whatever. This seems to be the mainstream opinion as well, based on our current trajectory and actions, but it's gauche to say it plainly and so we create rationalizations to see ourselves as better people.
- pif 4y ago
  > This seems to be the mainstream opinion as well, I don't agree with you. There are many people who do care about future generations. And maybe there are other people that share my opinion: 1) future generations deserve our attention and our best efforts, but only the efforts that can have an actual impact are worth to be taken. Going back to Stone Age for the others to keep enjoying modern comfort and spoiling my efforts any way? No, thanks! Convincing peoples around the world to formally engage in reducing emissions and then respecting the agreement? Sign me in! 2) despite our best efforts, we know that climate change is here to stay. Let's stop pretending that we can revert it in a couple of years! We are having several droughts, and it's likely they will be back next year: we need to act during this winter to save some water for next summer; we have to stop now to export produce from California. Not in twenty years, not in five years, but now! The ocean level is going up, and it will keep going up: stop building on the coast, stop moving to coastal cities built on flat terrain. Stop it now!

pif 4y ago

Thank you! Really, thank you for posting a fact-based statement without attaching your political opinion. I think facts would be accepted more easily if there were presented to the general public without attaching the personal opinion of the writer.

linuxftw 4y ago

There has always been catastropic weather. The climate has always been changing. The current tag line is 'climate change is accelerating due to human released CO2.' I believe human released CO2 is more or less inconsequential. We face far bigger problems with industrial chemical pollution. Put your money where your mouth is and quit buy any good made from materials from environmentally hostile countries. Advocate for banning imports from environmental destroyers. As long as we keep talking about CO2, we're not going to make any progress and we're going to exhaust all of our other precious resources long before we burn to death.