4 ms·

Can always count on Hackernews to start our day off with an existential threat to all humanity that we can no longer do anything about.

bayindirh 2y ago
The nice thing is we had the chance. However the people who had the power decided that monies is more important than a sphere of dirt. It's just too bad that we don't have a replacement for the latter one. Tough luck, maybe next time.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  Just absolutely floors me we have people in this very thread still "being skeptical" about this issue that's probably the second most-studied thing in science, right behind evolution. I'm glad I didn't have kids and I hope I don't live to see the worst effects of climate change. As for the rest of humanity: good fuckin luck y'all, you'll need it.
  - hocuspocus 2y ago
    It's not so surprising. We (the average tech worker on HN) are part of the problem, not the solution.
  - bayindirh 2y ago
    Some of these people saw the differences and still deny that anything is changing. a: We had more snow in the past. b: Maybe we have less now because everything is warming up? a: Nah, bullshit. It's just a phase, it'll pass. I mean, we know microcliamtes, city/neighborhood heat traps, their effect on local climate, the effects of greenhouse gases in heat retention and how these effects global climate, heat storage in water and earth... For God's sake, people believe when their app says that it'll rain in 15 minutes, but won't believe it that they'll be broiled in 15 years. It's the same calculations basically! ...and despite all this knowledge and we know what we're doing and how we're doing it, many people deny that we did something to the environment and we're here now. oh, boy.
- timmg 2y ago
  > However the people who had the power decided that monies is more important than a sphere of dirt. Is that really true? In the past decades, we really had two options to reduce CO2: massive decrease in standard of living; or massive switch to non-carbon energy -- the only one we had the tech for it nuclear (and even then, I don't think we had the battery tech to move to electric vehicles until recently). Very few voters would have chosen a massive decrease in standard of living. Though many voters/activists rejected nuclear power. Now we have solar, wind and battery tech that allows us to move away from carbon-based energy. But that adoption has slowed. Partly because the US has been drilling oil like crazy -- both to reduce inflation and to counter Russia. (And, arguably, driving a Tesla has suddenly become less fashionable since Elon has gone to the Right.)
  - lm28469 2y ago
    > we really had two options to reduce CO2: massive decrease in standard of living We could cut a looooot of useless shit before our standard of living are impacted. And for the things we can't do without we have huge margins to improve. I feel like a lot of people think "any kind of concession or compromise is an unbearable attack on my god given rights to do whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want", if that's your point of view then of course, we can do absolutely nothing about climate change
    - timmg 2y ago
      > We could cut a looooot of useless shit before our standard of living are impacted. Do tell.
      - bayindirh 2y ago
        Let's start by not being so diligent on Diesel passenger cars' emissions, unregulated CFC production in China, not investing in PUE reduction sooner, not forcing effective filtering in coal power plants in some countries. We can continue with (un)controlled deforestation for mining and palm oil (and increasing its use despite its health hazards), uncontrolled tapping of natural water resources just to sell it as bottled water (remember Nestlé CEO doesn't believe that water is a human right because they can sell it). Let's add burning petrol wells, untapped methane leaks, oil companies' lobbying to slow down EV adoption, etc. etc. etc... More on EVs & cars: Formula 1 cars are hybrids way before passenger cars were. This tech would have trickled down way earlier in history. SAAB made 4-cylinter Turbocharged 9-3 and made a compelling, powerful car for everyone, but everyone, esp. US. opted for V8s for "manly" reasons. ...lastly, let's not get started on single-use plastics and how we have been deceived with this arrowy-triangle and recycling. We had the chance. P.S.: I keep adding things, but there's also planned obsolescence. e.g.: I have a perfectly fine BT headphone with great sound quality, but I can't replace its battery without destroying it. How being able to replace its battery impacts my quality of life?
conartist6 2y ago
It cuts both ways. There's a lot of change coming that we can no longer avert, and yet we could still do hugely more damage. It's a tough pill to swallow that we have to live in a drastically changed world and we still have hard work to do to not let it become New Arrakis. Nobody seems to know how to tell an optimistic narrative about this reality, but I believe it to be possible

bayindirh 2y ago

The nice thing is we had the chance. However the people who had the power decided that monies is more important than a sphere of dirt. It's just too bad that we don't have a replacement for the latter one. Tough luck, maybe next time.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
Just absolutely floors me we have people in this very thread still "being skeptical" about this issue that's probably the second most-studied thing in science, right behind evolution. I'm glad I didn't have kids and I hope I don't live to see the worst effects of climate change. As for the rest of humanity: good fuckin luck y'all, you'll need it.
- hocuspocus 2y ago
  It's not so surprising. We (the average tech worker on HN) are part of the problem, not the solution.
- bayindirh 2y ago
  Some of these people saw the differences and still deny that anything is changing. a: We had more snow in the past. b: Maybe we have less now because everything is warming up? a: Nah, bullshit. It's just a phase, it'll pass. I mean, we know microcliamtes, city/neighborhood heat traps, their effect on local climate, the effects of greenhouse gases in heat retention and how these effects global climate, heat storage in water and earth... For God's sake, people believe when their app says that it'll rain in 15 minutes, but won't believe it that they'll be broiled in 15 years. It's the same calculations basically! ...and despite all this knowledge and we know what we're doing and how we're doing it, many people deny that we did something to the environment and we're here now. oh, boy.
timmg 2y ago
> However the people who had the power decided that monies is more important than a sphere of dirt. Is that really true? In the past decades, we really had two options to reduce CO2: massive decrease in standard of living; or massive switch to non-carbon energy -- the only one we had the tech for it nuclear (and even then, I don't think we had the battery tech to move to electric vehicles until recently). Very few voters would have chosen a massive decrease in standard of living. Though many voters/activists rejected nuclear power. Now we have solar, wind and battery tech that allows us to move away from carbon-based energy. But that adoption has slowed. Partly because the US has been drilling oil like crazy -- both to reduce inflation and to counter Russia. (And, arguably, driving a Tesla has suddenly become less fashionable since Elon has gone to the Right.)
- lm28469 2y ago
  > we really had two options to reduce CO2: massive decrease in standard of living We could cut a looooot of useless shit before our standard of living are impacted. And for the things we can't do without we have huge margins to improve. I feel like a lot of people think "any kind of concession or compromise is an unbearable attack on my god given rights to do whatever the fuck I want whenever the fuck I want", if that's your point of view then of course, we can do absolutely nothing about climate change
  - timmg 2y ago
    > We could cut a looooot of useless shit before our standard of living are impacted. Do tell.
    - bayindirh 2y ago
      Let's start by not being so diligent on Diesel passenger cars' emissions, unregulated CFC production in China, not investing in PUE reduction sooner, not forcing effective filtering in coal power plants in some countries. We can continue with (un)controlled deforestation for mining and palm oil (and increasing its use despite its health hazards), uncontrolled tapping of natural water resources just to sell it as bottled water (remember Nestlé CEO doesn't believe that water is a human right because they can sell it). Let's add burning petrol wells, untapped methane leaks, oil companies' lobbying to slow down EV adoption, etc. etc. etc... More on EVs & cars: Formula 1 cars are hybrids way before passenger cars were. This tech would have trickled down way earlier in history. SAAB made 4-cylinter Turbocharged 9-3 and made a compelling, powerful car for everyone, but everyone, esp. US. opted for V8s for "manly" reasons. ...lastly, let's not get started on single-use plastics and how we have been deceived with this arrowy-triangle and recycling. We had the chance. P.S.: I keep adding things, but there's also planned obsolescence. e.g.: I have a perfectly fine BT headphone with great sound quality, but I can't replace its battery without destroying it. How being able to replace its battery impacts my quality of life?

conartist6 2y ago

It cuts both ways. There's a lot of change coming that we can no longer avert, and yet we could still do hugely more damage. It's a tough pill to swallow that we have to live in a drastically changed world and we still have hard work to do to not let it become New Arrakis. Nobody seems to know how to tell an optimistic narrative about this reality, but I believe it to be possible