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Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

> In years gone past, whatever the crisis, America would step up and lead.

Many would argue that America was the one who created many of those crises in the first place.

American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change, so a loss in status is absolutely warranted.

> The really terrifying things don’t get much in the way of discourse. How can this possibly be in the same league as the terrifying stuff we’re a bit scared to talk about because there aren’t really any great answers and there’s no way to predict when so we have an easy way to ignore it all.

A super volcano eruption is beyond our control, so there's no point getting worked up about that. Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change.

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> American capitalism has led the world to the brink of destruction by climate change

This sort of alarmist language makes it really difficult to take anything you said seriously. I'm fairly confident most people think climate change is concerning, but not "on the brink of destruction"

"American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history.

> Nothing else pales in comparison to the destruction that's coming as a direct result of USA turning a blind eye to climate change.

Interesting, because the United States has actually been lowering carbon dioxide emissions, and total output absolutely pales in comparison to China which has seen nearly exponential growth [0].

This may be completely wrong, but it seems like a majority of climate change talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do.

Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_...

> "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history.

European capitalism

>Interesting how America is always to blame for the world's problems. I'm not saying America has been perfect, but it certainly does more good than bad.

Tell that to the Middle East, parts of South East Asia and South Americas.

> talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more, and rarely about what other countries can do.

Now we get to the nub.

The key word here is responsibility. And dont look at production level CO2 emission. The US eclipses every nation on earth when looking at per person energy consumption and resulting CO2 footprint[0]

If India and China's citizens lived like Americans, it would be a global catastrophe. Those two nations are still developing their grids and can't pour money into alternative energy industries and R&D because of cost and scale[1]

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electri...

[1] https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-rdd-budgets-20...

Post script: I'm a neutral observer. But take everything I say with a truckload of salt.

>> "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history.

Is that true? I’ve heard this recently from republican leaning sources but it doesn’t appear to be true.

E.g. of the 30 countries with the greatest reduction in poverty rates in the last 20 years its hard to pin point the American influence?

Stretching back further, global poverty reduction begins in earnest in the 19th century yet American capitalism only begins in around the start of the 20th century.

>> it seems like a majority of climate change talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more

An American citizen emits 16 tonnes of co2 per year. Who else even comes close?

>> "American capitalism" is also responsible for the greatest reduction of poverty globally in all of human history.

> Is that true? I’ve heard this recently from republican leaning sources but it doesn’t appear to be true.

I can't find sources to determine the exact contribution of the US to this, but free market capitalism in general is definitely responsible [0].

>> it seems like a majority of climate change talk always revolves around how the US can be doing more

> An American citizen emits 16 tonnes of co2 per year. Who else even comes close?

Canada is higher, Australia is close behind. I mentioned this before, but US co2 emissions have been in decline, while many other countries are increasing. It will not take India long before it eclipses the US.

America represents 15% of total co2 emissions [1]. If we wanted to reduce globally everyone needs to participate.

[0] https://catalyst.independent.org/2019/06/14/capitalism-remai...

[1] https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-emiss...

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