
The Adorable Optimism of the IPCC - jxub
https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=8433
======
jxub
Looks like it was taken down from the front page. Any reason for that?

Edit: looks like it was just because the score, not any shadowbanning. The
article can be really abrasive for many and being in denial about the topic of
climate change and potential upcoming societal collapse is the easier way.

I still hope that it's not the case with the submission.

Join us over at r/collapse, interesting discussion is happening about this
topics there.

------
darkmighty
I really think scientists should speak up more about the situation. They'll be
accused of "alarmism" by right wing media in any case. But they should be much
more political and emphatic on necessity of swift action. Because what we've
been doing so far isn't working. Emissions aren't being cut. We're still going
almost full speed to a very bleak natural future.

In fact I think it's a duty of anyone with a basic scientific education to try
and inform about the basic scary consequences (highlighted in this article)
and propagate this information to their vicinity. Most people I talk to have
no idea of the breadth of consequences. And then the second step is using
democracy and voting specifically on candidates that are fighting to address
the issue -- not only on national level but whatever level you can get
(county,city,state).

Finally if massive change isn't detected in a few years (I'm skeptical) the
higher organizations (UN, UNSC, etc.) need to start aggressively punishing
emissions on a global level. Something like a mandatory carbon tax on every
country seems like a good start.

~~~
cheezymoogle
I wrote this four years ago and I think it still rings true:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1xjpfg/health_of_ocea...](https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/1xjpfg/health_of_oceans_declining_fast_warming/cfc94tj)

We're in a double-bind in that the only thing that we can use as a stick to
beat defectors over the head with is the same stick that defectors are beaten
over the head for having in the first place.

The sad state that I think many longterm observers have arrived at by this
point is that the red line in the sand beyond which global biocide could have
been prevented came and went, silently unnoticed under the ever-increasing
weight of modern existence. That moment could've passed sixty years ago; it
could've passed sixty minutes ago. I see no way that we'll ever know for
certain and I don't know if it really matters in the end anyway. Life has the
bug/feature that makes near-as-to-be-limitless energy toxic to the longevity
of our ecology. This is simply a more complex reindeer-on-St.-Matthews-Island
situation.[1]

It's probably time to don sackcloth and ashes and pray in something other than
humanism: be it God, the innate benevolence of universal laws, the development
of sentient machines, the transmigration of consciousness, or some other
improbably-probable deus ex machina that allows continuity of sentient
existence from this planet to somewhere more enduring.

Because if the last hundred years have suggested anything, it's that any
attempt by Human Authority to voluntarily and mercifully achieve Justice will
be, and has been, sabotaged by the ruination of Moloch.[2]

\---

[1] [http://dieoff.org/page80.htm](http://dieoff.org/page80.htm)

[2] [http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-
moloch/](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/)

~~~
darkmighty
I don't think we can renounce humanism. I don't think we should, at least. If
you've ever seen something beautiful, if you've ever lived with someone really
beautiful, in their values, their actions, their character, intelligence,
personality, appearance, if you've ever heard truly moving music, I think
you'd be betraying yourself by being anything less than a fierce humanist --
all this beauty doesn't belong to the immortal, perennial, indifferent
universe, isn't a fruit of the economic system, isn't a product of machines,
of the eternal structure of the cosmos, or anything else, even life itself. It
lies singularly in the human mind, the beholding eye, and in the presence of
other humans to share it.

This demands faith in a certain human ideal -- high above the corruptible
idiocy in display in politics -- the basis which produced those indefectible
experiences, feelings and ideas most people had a chance of experiencing, or
at least had a small glimpse. No matter what happens, one can't lose faith or
abandon this defense of the basic human ideal (if only your own humanity) in
favor of anything else, or nothing else. It's not about optimism (although
optimism can be an important tool in this persistence), it's about maintaining
all that is good in the universe (again at least in your own life and loved
ones, if it comes to that).

We may go (indeed we _will_ go eventually), but let us go living, and
fighting, for what's worth living and fighting for; hollow ones (worshippers
of gods or capitals, nihilists and ignoramus) be damned.

Be safe, friend. And Don't you dare go hollow :)

