4 ms·
Future generations will look back in horror at our air quality in the same way that we look back at medieval sewer systems
by pharmakom 4y ago
Future generations will look back in horror at our air quality in the same way that we look back at medieval sewer systems
- mjamesaustin 4y agoThat is so spot on. We look back in abject horror at people dumping their waste into the streets, yet we do the very same with our air.
- Syonyk 4y agoI expect their reactions to basically all of our modern society to be "disgust." Our air, our water, our environment, our attention ecosystems. All quite human-toxic.
- borissk 4y agoYou're an optimist - if we end up with a nuclear war (which was avoided a few times by pure accident) or runaway global warming, future generations, if any, may think of current times as a golden age...
- Syonyk 4y agoThat's not how history typically works. The group that destroys the place is not regarded as heroes, they're regarded as a warning of things to be avoided. If any of those things happen, there will be very strong taboos against anything that would begin to lead down the same roads again.
- wongarsu 4y agoExactly. If we experience global nuclear warfare or runaway climate change, the generation that caused it will be a cautionary tale, not "the golden age"
- bitL 4y agoMemory of a civilization only lasts a few generations and at some point all lessons are forgotten. You can see it already wrt lessons from WW1 and WW2 in Europe.
- paulryanrogers 4y agoYet the mines and shells will remind generations to come. Just as the tree-free plains and deserts remind us of our ancestors efforts to exploit forests with little regard for sustainability.
- jodrellblank 4y agoThe same way we look back in horror at the earlier air quality of London, when everyone burned cheap coal for home heating and 'pea-souper' fogs were a thing, before the Clean Air Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pea_soup_fog