5 ms·

Yes the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.

anoxor 3y ago
Or, we are given a constant stream of the absolute worst news around the world. How about the earth has greened by 15% in the recent decade, turning semi arid regions into forests. How about the coral reefs that were in absolute collapse are coming back? Somehow only the maximum gloom and doom is communicated…
- hobs 3y ago
  Maximum? No - the fact that global climate change will likely lead to the collapse of globalization in some of our lifetimes is the "worst news" from our standpoint, we barely give a crap about the penguins. Talking about the positives doesn't negate the negatives, and frankly looking on the bright side of climate change is like talking about how great the last dinner on the titantic was.
- hotpotamus 3y ago
  Where I live is in the worst drought in living memory with record breaking heat almost every day this month. A co-worker's well ran dry a week or two ago. Trees are dying and I've never seen so many dead animals, presumably from heat or dehydration. Why would I need to watch the national news for calamity?
  - Sporktacular 3y ago
    So you, and others, can know it's a global problem, needing more real leadership than ever before.
    - hotpotamus 3y ago
      I think my feelings these days are more along the lines of trying to enjoy what time is left, but I'm not doing so well at that.
- willio58 3y ago
  It’s not an “or”, it’s an “and” situation. We are both destroying the planet and we only get bad news. Unfortunately, nobody cares about good news. Sure, we all like good news but it doesn’t drive engagement so massive companies can’t profit off of it. If you look for it, there is good news out there. Advancements in green energy (specifically solar) and battery tech is really encouraging, and there’s so much more happening to counter act climate change. But climate change being a hoax is still something a large portion of the world’s political parties still ideologically tie themselves to. Until it get much worse, they will continue to claw to that lie. And as long as that lie continues, we’ll need stories like this.
  - Sporktacular 3y ago
    Who cares about the good news? On balance it's irrelevant and where it's not there's thousands of other things to work on next. Anyone who wants news modified around their feelings, to hear about puppies returned to their owners, should go read fiction and leave reality to the adults. There is an urgent, multi-layered problem to solve. Needing to feel good through this is pathetic. Humanity at its weakest.
- celtoid 3y ago
  Some cheery news: We're not far behind if the insects go. "According to a major scientific review, global insect populations are hurtling towards exctinction, threatening a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems". The research found that 41 percent of the world's insect populations are declining while a third are endangered. The extinction rate of insects is eight times faster than mammals, birds and reptiles and there are suggestions that they could totally vanish within a century." [0] [0] https://www.statista.com/chart/16960/percentage-decline-in-selected-global-insect-populations/ https://www.statista.com/chart/16960/percentage-decline-in-s...
- mplewis 3y ago
  The short-term symptoms you mention don't negate that we are hurtling over the carbon cliff.
- lamontcg 3y ago
  > How about the coral reefs that were in absolute collapse are coming back? The recovery stopped last year, and we're heading into El Nino conditions which will probably cause another mass bleaching: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/09/recovery-of-great-barrier-reef-stalls-as-scientists-point-to-bleaching-disease-and-starfish-attacks https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/09/recovery...
  - suby 3y ago
    Also this, > "100% coral mortality" found in coral reef restoration site off Florida as ocean temperatures soar https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coral-reef-mortality-florida-ocean-temperatures/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coral-reef-mortality-florida-oc...
melling 3y ago
[flagged]
- faeriechangling 3y ago
  The conservative parties where I live are hard to vote for because of their selfish ass climate policies. The recent trend has been using short-term poverty relief to justify removing ALL carbon pricing with the mere downside of doing several times the economic damage over the next few centuries particularly to the poor. Personal self-interest just being a convenient side-effect of this oh-so principled stance. This world won’t be able to outgrow its environmental debts forever.
- systemvoltage 3y ago
  [flagged]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
wolfgang42 3y ago
Original New Yorker cartoon, since it took me a moment to place where I’d heard this before: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 (Transcription: a man in a tattered business suit sits across a campfire from some children who are listening to him speak.)
dudeofea 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
cookiengineer 3y ago
> But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders. That is why I don't understand money. Money should be something that represents intention of sustainability, of creating value for future generations. Not this. I don't think we can reach Star Trek with money. We have to get rid of it and build a different society.
- willsmith72 3y ago
  I believe that's the role of government. As citizens we have the ability to vote people into power who will incentivise and disincentivise certain behaviours
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    Unfortunately the people who seek power don't think like that.
- kortilla 3y ago
  It has nothing to do with money or shareholders for that matter. As long as people have a say in what they want, they are going to push for creature comforts that damage the environment. Pick the country most hostile towards capitalism/shareholders, and you’ll still be looking at a polluter and contributor to climate change. The cartoon could just as easily be rewritten to “for a beautiful moment in time we let people have lots of autonomy in how they wanted to live”.
- p1esk 3y ago
  We have to get rid of it and build a different society. Who are “we”? And what exactly are you asking “us” to do?
  - cookiengineer 3y ago
    That is something I, as a hu-man, and a being that forgets, cannot tell you. The only thing I know is that the more I observe the stupidity of our species and the governments on this planet, which are somewhat all prone to egocentric corruptions and therefore stupid decisions in exchange for money ... doesn't work. I mean, we are collectively destroying our habitat, not even having a backup colony on our moon, not even wanting to go for space other than territorial dispute. And what is the reason why we don't do this? So that we can drive our sports cars to impress others? I meanwhile think that the only way to progress to a different society class (e.g. Type II and beyond) is if we decide to accept a rational system as our leading guidance at all cost. Be it a "Super AI" or a cybernetic system that combines all knowledge without forgetting it, doesn't matter. But what matters is that the current state of how we divide powers (in the sense of democracy, communism, socialism etc) doesn't work because there are people involved that don't give a damn. And those that don't give a damn are the ones that benefit the most from the system, and are able to reach the top much easier than people that are not willing to compromise on their ideals. The system(s) have to be redesigned so that the incentive of that changes. How to do that? I don't know, I'm a monkey that was trained to reach out for more bananas.
tippytippytango 3y ago
I wonder how many people have pensions, 401ks or significant wealth in an s&p etf saw this comic and thought “oh those silly shareholders, why are they so evil”
BLKNSLVR 3y ago
The best way I've heard it described, and what the powers that be just cannot seem to accept, is: The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.

Or, we are given a constant stream of the absolute worst news around the world. How about the earth has greened by 15% in the recent decade, turning semi arid regions into forests. How about the coral reefs that were in absolute collapse are coming back? Somehow only the maximum gloom and doom is communicated…

hobs 3y ago
Maximum? No - the fact that global climate change will likely lead to the collapse of globalization in some of our lifetimes is the "worst news" from our standpoint, we barely give a crap about the penguins. Talking about the positives doesn't negate the negatives, and frankly looking on the bright side of climate change is like talking about how great the last dinner on the titantic was.
hotpotamus 3y ago
Where I live is in the worst drought in living memory with record breaking heat almost every day this month. A co-worker's well ran dry a week or two ago. Trees are dying and I've never seen so many dead animals, presumably from heat or dehydration. Why would I need to watch the national news for calamity?
- Sporktacular 3y ago
  So you, and others, can know it's a global problem, needing more real leadership than ever before.
  - hotpotamus 3y ago
    I think my feelings these days are more along the lines of trying to enjoy what time is left, but I'm not doing so well at that.
willio58 3y ago
It’s not an “or”, it’s an “and” situation. We are both destroying the planet and we only get bad news. Unfortunately, nobody cares about good news. Sure, we all like good news but it doesn’t drive engagement so massive companies can’t profit off of it. If you look for it, there is good news out there. Advancements in green energy (specifically solar) and battery tech is really encouraging, and there’s so much more happening to counter act climate change. But climate change being a hoax is still something a large portion of the world’s political parties still ideologically tie themselves to. Until it get much worse, they will continue to claw to that lie. And as long as that lie continues, we’ll need stories like this.
- Sporktacular 3y ago
  Who cares about the good news? On balance it's irrelevant and where it's not there's thousands of other things to work on next. Anyone who wants news modified around their feelings, to hear about puppies returned to their owners, should go read fiction and leave reality to the adults. There is an urgent, multi-layered problem to solve. Needing to feel good through this is pathetic. Humanity at its weakest.
celtoid 3y ago
Some cheery news: We're not far behind if the insects go. "According to a major scientific review, global insect populations are hurtling towards exctinction, threatening a "catastrophic collapse of nature's ecosystems". The research found that 41 percent of the world's insect populations are declining while a third are endangered. The extinction rate of insects is eight times faster than mammals, birds and reptiles and there are suggestions that they could totally vanish within a century." [0] [0] https://www.statista.com/chart/16960/percentage-decline-in-selected-global-insect-populations/ https://www.statista.com/chart/16960/percentage-decline-in-s...
mplewis 3y ago
The short-term symptoms you mention don't negate that we are hurtling over the carbon cliff.
lamontcg 3y ago
> How about the coral reefs that were in absolute collapse are coming back? The recovery stopped last year, and we're heading into El Nino conditions which will probably cause another mass bleaching: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/09/recovery-of-great-barrier-reef-stalls-as-scientists-point-to-bleaching-disease-and-starfish-attacks https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/09/recovery...
- suby 3y ago
  Also this, > "100% coral mortality" found in coral reef restoration site off Florida as ocean temperatures soar https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coral-reef-mortality-florida-ocean-temperatures/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coral-reef-mortality-florida-oc...

melling 3y ago

[flagged]

faeriechangling 3y ago
The conservative parties where I live are hard to vote for because of their selfish ass climate policies. The recent trend has been using short-term poverty relief to justify removing ALL carbon pricing with the mere downside of doing several times the economic damage over the next few centuries particularly to the poor. Personal self-interest just being a convenient side-effect of this oh-so principled stance. This world won’t be able to outgrow its environmental debts forever.
systemvoltage 3y ago
[flagged]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

wolfgang42 3y ago

Original New Yorker cartoon, since it took me a moment to place where I’d heard this before: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995 (Transcription: a man in a tattered business suit sits across a campfire from some children who are listening to him speak.)

dudeofea 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.

cookiengineer 3y ago

> But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders. That is why I don't understand money. Money should be something that represents intention of sustainability, of creating value for future generations. Not this. I don't think we can reach Star Trek with money. We have to get rid of it and build a different society.

willsmith72 3y ago
I believe that's the role of government. As citizens we have the ability to vote people into power who will incentivise and disincentivise certain behaviours
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  Unfortunately the people who seek power don't think like that.
kortilla 3y ago
It has nothing to do with money or shareholders for that matter. As long as people have a say in what they want, they are going to push for creature comforts that damage the environment. Pick the country most hostile towards capitalism/shareholders, and you’ll still be looking at a polluter and contributor to climate change. The cartoon could just as easily be rewritten to “for a beautiful moment in time we let people have lots of autonomy in how they wanted to live”.
p1esk 3y ago
We have to get rid of it and build a different society. Who are “we”? And what exactly are you asking “us” to do?
- cookiengineer 3y ago
  That is something I, as a hu-man, and a being that forgets, cannot tell you. The only thing I know is that the more I observe the stupidity of our species and the governments on this planet, which are somewhat all prone to egocentric corruptions and therefore stupid decisions in exchange for money ... doesn't work. I mean, we are collectively destroying our habitat, not even having a backup colony on our moon, not even wanting to go for space other than territorial dispute. And what is the reason why we don't do this? So that we can drive our sports cars to impress others? I meanwhile think that the only way to progress to a different society class (e.g. Type II and beyond) is if we decide to accept a rational system as our leading guidance at all cost. Be it a "Super AI" or a cybernetic system that combines all knowledge without forgetting it, doesn't matter. But what matters is that the current state of how we divide powers (in the sense of democracy, communism, socialism etc) doesn't work because there are people involved that don't give a damn. And those that don't give a damn are the ones that benefit the most from the system, and are able to reach the top much easier than people that are not willing to compromise on their ideals. The system(s) have to be redesigned so that the incentive of that changes. How to do that? I don't know, I'm a monkey that was trained to reach out for more bananas.

tippytippytango 3y ago

I wonder how many people have pensions, 401ks or significant wealth in an s&p etf saw this comic and thought “oh those silly shareholders, why are they so evil”

BLKNSLVR 3y ago

The best way I've heard it described, and what the powers that be just cannot seem to accept, is: The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment.