The End of the End of the World | Hacker News Reader

The End of the End of the World

newyorker.com

58 pointsjonbaer34 comments

Fairly warned be thee, this is a Jonathan Franzen essay, so it's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you like lengthy light prose peppered with his usual shout-outs to degenerative diseases you're in luck.

Franzen went on a luxury cruise around the Falklands, South Georgia Island and the pointy bits of the Antarctic Peninsula. He is a keen bird-watcher. He has eyes of glass and the heart of a tape recorder. He found Antarctica beautiful and finds the notion of global warming slightly upsetting, but life goes on. The cruise was a bit over three weeks long, but he has known his family for much longer than that so they feature proportionally.

There are no photographs of Antarctica because he resolved ahead of time not to take any photographs. He did not make it to the end of the world, nor does he substantially discuss the end of said end.

Not everything needs a tl;dr.

I concur. The facts don't matter.

I'm a fussy reader, I stayed the distance, this was beautiful.

This needed one. I'm on mobile and didn't want to open the article. I thought this was about an apocalypse.

At the risk of being snarky (and this IS meant in good humour just to make my point) can you provide me a 100 word precis of Romeo and Juliet so I don't have to bother reading it or going to see it?

At risk of being extra snarky, that's called a synopsis and they're frequently used to determine if you want to read something....

Global warming preachiness turned me off in this context ... so how many years of a typical American consumer's carbon footprint did the cruise emit?

It's like traveling to watch the polar bears we're trying to save from global warming, watching then from tundra-tractors. Researchers should go, everyone else should stay home.

I enjoyed this article and I'm glad I took the time to read it. Did I learn about some new framework? No. Will I get ahead in the rat race because of it? Unlikely. Though I do feel enriched because of it. I was there when Walt shouted at Jonathan. I was there when Jonathan found out about Gail's death. Maybe I'm alone in finding the utility of an article like this. It wasn't rubbish nor poorly written. It was just right.

Went to Antarctica around 2005ish, one of the most amazing things I've ever done and was quite cheap, thanks to the Argentine economic crisis. Don't let worries stop you.

My favorite line was this:

> It’s true that the most effective single action that most human beings can take, not only to combat climate change but to preserve a world of biodiversity, is to not have children.

However, I'm not sure I understand how not having children preserves a world of biodiversity.

However, I'm not sure I understand how not having children preserves a world of biodiversity.

Increasing human activity depletes biodiversity by converting land into monocultured farmland, and by polluting the environment. Having children increases human activity. Therefore, having children reduces biodiversity. QED

Ergo wars are good? Especially nuclear wars?

I find the whole "there are too many of us" argument tedious. It's probably easier for whole world to switch to renewables than to increase birthrates.

More people don't mean necessary more polluters, but also potentially more ideas how to stop polluting, or go to space.

Nuclear wars are probably pretty bad for the biosphere. Biological weapons are best if you want to kill humans with minimal environmental impact, I think.

But jokes aside, don't you see an ethical difference between killing people and not having children?

Biosphere will recover without all the pesky humans in the way.

That's kinda the point - if reducing human population is the goal, then wars are way more efficient means.

I think ultimately both those path lead to same road. The same road China is on.

That argument assumes humans will always behave badly.

Judging by history, that seems a safe assumption.

Personally I have really enjoyed the article and I am happy I took the time to read it all. To anyone who comes to comments first - give it a try. Like another commenter said - I do feel enriched after reading it.

I enjoyed the prose to the degree of emailing the link to my family. Thinking of subscribing to New Yorker for the only reason of getting exposed to excellent essays.

Unreadable rubbish.

How on earth does an article like this have anything to do with hacker news?

Do you ever remember reading a reply to a comment such as you made?

If no: There are several similar ones each day.

If so: What did the reply say? (hint, this wasn't it!)

I tried, but this article is terribly written, 10 minutes in and I have no idea what this article about (other then probably something to do with Antarctica).

Can someone with more stamina then me explain to me what this is about and what is the title referring to?

More stamina? This isnt weight lifting. The article is meandering, but not badly written.

It's about a guy going on a trip to Antarctica, and having flashbacks about his uncle and his life, including his uncle's affair with his mom.

Not only that, but also how many people together supposedly having the same experience are having wildly different experiences.

What is the title referring to then? why the "end" of the end of the world?

It's not about stamina. Pat yourself on the back for having the very good sense to not ingest written faeces.

This article is too wordy, with zero photographs of Antarctica. Watch this video instead, which covers National Geographic's cruise ("expedition") to Antarctica:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isa9_gCH6do

Brilliant video. Thank you.

I got to the bit about Irma, assumed maybe it wasn't a story about Antarctica after all and gave up.

same here, who reads this book-size articles?

That video is half an hour long. Here's a Google Images search for 'Antarctica' for those of us without the time to spare: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=antarctica&tbm=isch

That was helpful, thank you, but maybe in the future you could just select a choice one or two?

Here's one weird tip... uhh, the Top 10. You won't believe what happens next, #3 is shocking.

http://www.ytravelblog.com/best-antarctica-10-highlights/

No mention of the Airdevrondix icefalls:

http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/An/Antarctica/Antarctic...

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