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I get where you are coming from but its best to not to frame it that way. This planet is now in flux. It will never be the same again. We are far, far past the
by jnmandal 4y ago
I get where you are coming from but its best to not to frame it that way. This planet is now in flux. It will never be the same again. We are far, far past the point of preserving some sort of status quo on ecology. The Willow Oil project is located in an ecology that simple is going to be gone. Its not salvageable. We have already made that choice. Its at nearly the northern most point on earth so the type of ecosystem there would need to migrate north and theres nothing above them. So yeah that sucks. And the oil drilling project itself (the capital, labor, materials, etc) is definitely a waste of human effort -- no doubt about that.
However, its hardly large enough to move the needle on carbon emissions. I mean compared to the really big forces at work that is nothing. They wont get 30 years of oil out of there, and they know it. So its just rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic -- a project that wont meet its expectations, going into a place that was going to be massively disturbed anyways. In fact, the project may not even get built because they would need to build on permafrost and turns out that is super difficult to do properly especially when its melting. There are many reasons to be pessimistic about the future but the reality is that wether or not this drilling project goes forward does not make any difference in what the future will be like.
There are however a ton of important things we can do as a society to make a better future for ourselves and those who come after us. We can do those things now, even as the death cult around fossil fuels continues its business as usual. In fact, by doing those things we make them less powerful. So while its good to recognize that things are changing irrevocably, its not like we are helpless. The important thing is to find alternatives to the status quo, find ideas that make us more resilient and then support those initiatives.
- justanorherhack 4y ago"And the oil drilling project itself (the capital, labor, materials, etc) is definitely a waste of human effort -- no doubt about that." No doubt huh?
- jnmandal 4y agoIn 100yrs or even 1000yrs, do you think people, if they still exist, will look back and say "wow we're amazed at the hard work of those men and women who drilled the last hydrocarbons"? Chances are they will have a lot of really mean things to say instead about our reticence, and how little intact ecology we left them to work with.
- throwawaylinux 4y ago> In 100yrs or even 1000yrs, do you think people, if they still exist, will look back and say "wow we're amazed at the hard work of those men and women who drilled the last hydrocarbons"? Sure. I am amazed at the hard work of the men who cut timber and cut road and railway track through mountains and mined and hunted whales and trapped animals hundreds of years ago despite that they irrevocably destroyed ecosystems. > Chances are they will have a lot of really mean things to say instead about our reticence, and how little intact ecology we left them to work with. I'd say the chances are the situation would be quite recognizable, with most people wishing things were better but unwilling to sacrifice much of their own, and the most comfortable and well off who benefit most from and have the largest environmental footprints denouncing others and shifting blame, so some thought will be spared for the whalers of today, but not a great deal.
- swexbe 4y agoYou can say this because their environmental destruction wasn't enough for you personally to be worse of than them. If that's the case for future generations, they will almost certainly be angry.
- throwawaylinux 4y agoNo you're wrong, even if I was angry at them I would still be amazed by the work they did.
- listenallyall 4y agoBeing angry doesn't necessarily equate to being right or rational. A lot of people are really pissed off about climate change and ecological harm and blame previous generations for drilling, mining, polluting, etc... then they happily board a plane to some exotic locale to get a few good shots to post to Instagram.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- qikInNdOutReply 4y agoWhich is why i advocate for ecological transplants. Take a snippet of a warmer zone and transfer it in a greenhouse with a open door, to a "new" candidate zone. Spread existing diversity and keep it, instead of reinventing it after a million years.