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Sometimes I wonder about the far future. Just looking at how hard it is to fight the urge by some to fell those trees for a quick buck, and seeing how preventin

Sometimes I wonder about the far future. Just looking at how hard it is to fight the urge by some to fell those trees for a quick buck, and seeing how preventing that requires a constant fight that comes back every 10 years and needs to be restarted all over again... It seems inevitable that at some point the stars will align and they will get their way. I wonder, after 500 years, after 1000 years of industrialization, what will be left of Earth?

hdgvhicv 1y ago
They’ll pave paradise and put up a parking lot?
- hoten 1y ago
  A sad eventuality, but perhaps at least an interesting game. Just saw an trailer for an unreleased game: rollercoaster tycoon, but for parking lots. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3031880/Car_Park_Capital/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3031880/Car_Park_Capital/
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    I assumed it was being ironic?
throwup238 1y ago
> I wonder, after 500 years, after 1000 years of industrialization, what will be left of Earth? In the last 150 years we went from almost zero protected areas to 26 million sq km of nature preserve, or a fifth of the Earth’s total landmass (excluding Antarctica, which is also protected). Out of the ~106 million sq km of habitable land, half of it is unprotected forest (37%) and shrubland. Only about a third of that forest is used for lumber so there’s room to protect about thrice as much as is already protected. We have to remain vigilant but the global zeitgeist is very much on the side of preserving more nature rather than less. There will be more hickups but I wouldn’t be surprised if we double the amount of protected land in the next 100 years.
- parineum 1y ago
  It's funny that a movement can be so successful and not just underestimate it's success but completely misunderstood the directionality of the trend.
- CharlesW 1y ago
  It was nice while it lasted, but the "shining city upon a hill" era is dead and gone. There's a Project 2025 effort to lift protections for nearly 60 million acres, and that's surely just the beginning unless the U.S. un-loses its mind. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/white-house-set-to-roll-back-protections-for-nearly-60-million-acres-of-national-forests https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/white-house-set-to-roll-ba...
  - valianteffort 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - timeon 1y ago
      Can you be more specific? This sounds generic dismissive. EDIT: so after quick googling this [1] wikipedia page looks completely different than wiki pages of 'conspiracy theories' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
    - CharlesW 1y ago
      Please don't push the conspiracy theory that "Project 2025 is a conspiracy theory". It's incredibly easy to validate that Project 2025 is a real thing, that it's policy, and that it is well underway. https://www.project2025.observer/en https://www.project2025.observer/en
    - vkou 1y ago
      Project 2025 is a roadmap that is actively being executed, not a 'theory'. And given that it's not secret, it's not a conspiracy. All of its worst parts are being done right there in the open, and you're holding a fig leaf in front of it. Why are you doing that?
timeon 1y ago
> after 500 years 500 years sounds optimistic. Are we ignoring climate change here?
maxerickson 1y ago
Michigan was basically clear cut in the late 1800s. It's quite forested now. We lost the majority of the old, large trees, but the forests came back.
crabmusket 1y ago
Jacques Ellul in full old testament prophet mode: > The world that is being created by the accumulation of technical means is an artificial world and hence radically different from the natural world. > It destroys, eliminates, or subordinates the natural world, and does not allow this world to restore itself or even to enter into a symbiotic relation with it. The two worlds obey different imperatives, different directives, and different laws which have nothing in common. > Just as hydroelectric installations take waterfalls and lead them into conduits, so the technical milieu absorbs the natural. We are rapidly approaching the time when there will be no longer any natural environment at all. When we succeed in producing artificial aurorae boreales, night will disappear and perpetual day will reign over the planet.
ryandrake 1y ago
The destroyers only have to win once. The preservers have to win every single time the destroyers make an attempt.

hdgvhicv 1y ago

They’ll pave paradise and put up a parking lot?

hoten 1y ago
A sad eventuality, but perhaps at least an interesting game. Just saw an trailer for an unreleased game: rollercoaster tycoon, but for parking lots. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3031880/Car_Park_Capital/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3031880/Car_Park_Capital/
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  I assumed it was being ironic?

throwup238 1y ago

> I wonder, after 500 years, after 1000 years of industrialization, what will be left of Earth? In the last 150 years we went from almost zero protected areas to 26 million sq km of nature preserve, or a fifth of the Earth’s total landmass (excluding Antarctica, which is also protected). Out of the ~106 million sq km of habitable land, half of it is unprotected forest (37%) and shrubland. Only about a third of that forest is used for lumber so there’s room to protect about thrice as much as is already protected. We have to remain vigilant but the global zeitgeist is very much on the side of preserving more nature rather than less. There will be more hickups but I wouldn’t be surprised if we double the amount of protected land in the next 100 years.

parineum 1y ago
It's funny that a movement can be so successful and not just underestimate it's success but completely misunderstood the directionality of the trend.
CharlesW 1y ago
It was nice while it lasted, but the "shining city upon a hill" era is dead and gone. There's a Project 2025 effort to lift protections for nearly 60 million acres, and that's surely just the beginning unless the U.S. un-loses its mind. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/white-house-set-to-roll-back-protections-for-nearly-60-million-acres-of-national-forests https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/white-house-set-to-roll-ba...
- valianteffort 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - timeon 1y ago
    Can you be more specific? This sounds generic dismissive. EDIT: so after quick googling this [1] wikipedia page looks completely different than wiki pages of 'conspiracy theories' [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025
  - CharlesW 1y ago
    Please don't push the conspiracy theory that "Project 2025 is a conspiracy theory". It's incredibly easy to validate that Project 2025 is a real thing, that it's policy, and that it is well underway. https://www.project2025.observer/en https://www.project2025.observer/en
  - vkou 1y ago
    Project 2025 is a roadmap that is actively being executed, not a 'theory'. And given that it's not secret, it's not a conspiracy. All of its worst parts are being done right there in the open, and you're holding a fig leaf in front of it. Why are you doing that?

timeon 1y ago

> after 500 years 500 years sounds optimistic. Are we ignoring climate change here?

maxerickson 1y ago

Michigan was basically clear cut in the late 1800s. It's quite forested now. We lost the majority of the old, large trees, but the forests came back.

crabmusket 1y ago

Jacques Ellul in full old testament prophet mode: > The world that is being created by the accumulation of technical means is an artificial world and hence radically different from the natural world. > It destroys, eliminates, or subordinates the natural world, and does not allow this world to restore itself or even to enter into a symbiotic relation with it. The two worlds obey different imperatives, different directives, and different laws which have nothing in common. > Just as hydroelectric installations take waterfalls and lead them into conduits, so the technical milieu absorbs the natural. We are rapidly approaching the time when there will be no longer any natural environment at all. When we succeed in producing artificial aurorae boreales, night will disappear and perpetual day will reign over the planet.

ryandrake 1y ago

The destroyers only have to win once. The preservers have to win every single time the destroyers make an attempt.