Climate Experts on the Musk-Trump Interview | Hacker News Reader

Climate Experts on the Musk-Trump Interview

theguardian.com

4 pointsmempko7 comments

What is Bill McKibben's academic background to be considered an expert? According to Wikipedia, he has written a few books but has otherwise only been active as an activist. The foundation seems a bit thin to me, but I'm happy to be convinced otherwise.

Instead of focusing on Bill McKibben perhaps you should focus on Michael E.Mann? He def. knows what he is talking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_E._Mann

"We still have quite a bit of time … we don’t need to rush and we don’t need to like, you know, stop farmers from farming or, you know, prevent people from having steaks or basic stuff like that. Like, leave the farmers alone." - Elon Musk.

Not sure what Musk hopes to achieve from this obvious trolling. From a business perspective, that's the problem with having your company be a cult of personality: if that personality stops resonating with your prospective customers, then you're likely to have problems. This is the incredible accomplishment Tim Cook has achieved at Apple - Tim has transitioned Apple from being a cult of personality company centered around Steve Jobs to a company that's centered around a strong brand. Companies focusing on their branding tend to do better in the long run than companies relying on a cult of personality. Tesla may end up learning this lesson the hard way.

The United States has been paying farmers to not farm for over 70 years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_Reserve_Program

Trump subsidized farmers during his administration:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/12/31/790261705/fa...

"[...] leave the farmers alone." can be interpreted as to continue to subsidize farmers. I don't necessarily disagree with this statement - food security is obviously important for any government - but the farmers aren't working now in a laissez-faire environment (like Tesla who also takes advantage of government credits).

> Major Major's father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down.

> His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn't earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce.

> Major Major's father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

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