This whole article rests on this faulty premise.
It’s like saying everyone is concerned about shark attacks. Everyone’s not THAT concerned or the beach would be a lot less crowded.
“Planet health” is probably not even in the top 1000 of concerns for most people. They may claim that it is. But then ask what they’ve done about it and they’ll likely say, “I’m just one person what I do won’t matter…”
I’m concerned about plenty of things, for example regarding my health or relationships, yet mostly fail to take action to address these concerns. The same holds true for the state of this planet; climate change and microplastics all over etc.
I’m sure ”planet health” is in the top1000 concerns for most people not denying climate change.
If those people hadn’t been displaced in 2024 due to climate induced disasters, what would they be doing today to prevent climate induced disasters?
> I’m pretty sure there are quite a few people concerned about climate change.
I never said there weren’t. There’s like 8 billion people on Earth. I said for most of them, climate change is not in their top 1000 concerns.
Not only has their house been burned to the ground, insurance has refused to cover the cost, and they have no idea where their pets are; but they're hungry because they haven't eaten in hours.
Do they care more about being displaced by the disaster or eating?
I think it can be said they care about both.
Research shows that 3.6 billion people live in areas threatened by climate disaster-induced change.
Just because some of them are hungry at any given moment doesn't remove the fact that they can also be concerned that the land where they grew up might be uninhabitable before they retire.
I don’t know what that is but OK.
> Do they care more about being displaced by the disaster or eating? > I think it can be said they care about both.
I don’t disagree but this is also not at all what I asked.
People care about the things in front of them.
Nobody really cares about climate change until it’s in front of them in terms of a burnt down house or chest-deep flood waters.
If they did, they would do something to address it. But they don’t.
Because addressing it (for the wealthiest people who have the ability to address it) means making significant changes to their lives.
You can tell me that you care about the climate all you want but until you’re willing to sacrifice something from your life as a result, I’m not particularly interested in hearing anything else.
Personally, I have never driven a car, live in a small apartment, don’t eat meat, and don’t fly in airplanes. I do those things because I like them. If driving a car, eating meat, and taking cross-country flights were keys to fixing the climate I wouldn’t do them!
I care about myself more than I do climate change. The same as essentially everybody else.
Obviously YMMV by jurisdiction but I think it's well above the 1000th priority for many people in the developed world. Though you're right to point out that it falls far below things like education, or health, or even recreation, all of which AI could potentially have a hand in improving.
- Not flying around the world for vacations and events - Buying and consuming less of almost everything that is not essential to life. - No more fancy AI-generated images just for fun and useless show-offs. - ...
The list goes on, but even acknowledging some of it does not mean acting on it. Hell, yeah, we better leave the consequences to our grandchildren.