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Comment by RetroTechie | Hacker News Reader

The tragedy: by the time a big enough % of the public finds their own lives in turmoil, panic breaks out, politics shift, Big Oil & co get shoved aside, chances are tipping points have passed & we're in for the ride no matter what. These processes have a decades-delayed fuse.

So it may just be too little, too late, with our species' extinction on the table (never mind all the 1000s of species we've already wiped out).

Don't get me wrong: every little bit helps (especially now), and sooner = better. So please keep deploying solutions, and stop contributing to the problem!

But I can't say I'm optimistic. Public at large does not understand how quickly the state of a system can change once underlying factors cross critical thresholds.

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Some argue that another form of climate denial is the denial that we're headed for certain doom.

Of course it's an easy cop-out, to say "well the planet's doomed anyway, let's book those flights to the Maldives! (Before the sea swallows them)". Or to deny responsibility by saying "Why should I change, look at those private jets!".

I agree when Kurzgesagt argues, the fix is to push for political change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiw6_JakZFc . I like meat, petrol cars and flying vacations, but if they get heavily taxed to help save the planet, I'll sign up for that!

I'll grumble that meat is such a luxury, but that's how it's supposed to be...

We’ve had 4 decades.

If you’re still telling people flying is the problem, then you’re part of the problem

Where is all that renewable power we were promised every time we said “use nuclear”.

We still haven’t hit peak coal.

What do you mean "we were promised"? There were people saying "renewable would be sufficient" and then there were people who controlled the purse, and second group didn't give a shit what the first group had to say and kept fracking and digging for oil and coal.

People were probably saying the same about the declining population of the dodo. "We'll all starve".

Yet the world goes on, and usually future people tend to not care so much about mistakes of the past.

The population problem was solved by some chemical reaction using fossil fuels to create fertiliser so crop yields could increase

What’s going to be the tech solution this time?

> The population problem was solved by some chemical reaction using fossil fuels to create fertiliser so crop yields could increase

"Solved"? It helped us become dependent on fossil fuels for food. And more mouths to feed.

> What’s going to be the tech solution this time?

There might not be one this time. And/or the core problem(s) are not technological.

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