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Comment by cameronbrown | Hacker News Reader

That's a little cynical isn't it?

The world is improving by many, many metrics. Absolute poverty isn't just going down, it's accelerating towards zero. We're also hitting a point where everyone who can be, is connected. Online education is better than ever (for those who seek it). I could go on.

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Its defintely cynical. Yes, the world is improving in many ways. Poverty is getting pretty better, diseases are fairly easier to fight, and infanticide isn't a thing. However, its also clear that governments have seemingly no interest trying to fight climate change and a large amount of the world is going to be suffering from the consequences of that in the future.

My personal belief is that humans are bad at seeing into the future, but are great at mobilising around here-and-now problems. And I believe the next generation will be the ones to start tackling it while seeing the effects.

I think 100% irreversible processes like microplastics in oceans is something that much more urgently needs dealing with. Repairing the climate is easy compared to filtering trillions of molecules back out the ocean.

Well, maybe but the time it takes for the next generation to get in power, and actually start making changes, it might be too late for many many cities of the world. In times like this, isn't it more responsible to not have children?

Malthus lives!

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