Thread

1. HelloUsername · 1790689443 · focus · HN ↗

   Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet, the planet is fine… the people are fucked! Compared to the people, the planet is doing great: been here four and a half billion years, we’ve been here what? 100,000? Maybe 200,000? And we’ve only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over 200 years, and we have the conceit to think that somehow, we’re a threat? That we’re going to put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that’s just a-floatin’ around the sun? The planet has been through a lot worse than us: been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drifts, solar flares, sunspots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages, and we think some plastic bags and aluminum cans are going to make a difference?

   The planet isn’t going anywhere… we are! We’re going away!

   1. altmanaltman · 1790689807 · focus · HN ↗

      The planet has not been through anything, it doesn't experience things or has memories. It literally cannot care if we survive or go extinct. This is why environmentalism focusig on "mother earth" or "the earth is suffering" is so annoying. Focus on humans and what we will face in the future, what our kids will face. Environmentalism should be a humanism and focus on them instead of having broad goals like fixing the whole planet.

      1. swid · 1790692265 · focus · HN ↗

         The planet / Mother Earth is just a way to talk about connected ecosystems of this big rock we live on. Yes the rock is not alive, but life is important, even if your only concern is as a proxy for our own support systems. How much value you place on different lives - your own, other people, whales, monkeys, deer, bugs… you are free to value them differently, but I’d hope you would not gleefully accept that we should just tolerate the wholesale destruction of habits on earth simply because it does not appear to affect human survival on the surface.

         In case you have not noticed, we are currently in the sixth great extinction of this planet, which is driven by human activity. I consider it beyond tragic and existential to know that many of the wonders of this planet are going away and never coming back. Humans can live with air conditioning or under ground, but that doesn’t help other animals. You can still view this under a human lens if you wish, but for many of us, those other kinds of life are worth something, and bundling up that value by saying “we must protect the Earth” seems quite natural and defendable to me.

         1. altmanaltman · 1790794781 · focus · HN ↗

            Why do you consider it tragic that many wonders of this planet are going away and never coming back? Coming back for whom? Who decided that its a wonder? If there are no humans, there are no wonders of the world.

            We are extremely lucky we are born in this planet. But to think it is the only one with intelligent life is laughable. It literally doesn't matter to anyone than other humans what wonders of the world remain or are lost. It is egostictical to imagine a planet in only your own view of what it should be. Maybe Mars is the ideal planet, barren and no life. Why can't that be the case? You're looking at this from a completely humanistic view and arguing that we should not see the world from a humanistic view which is a contradiction imom

            1. swid · 1790802598 · focus · HN ↗

               > If there are no humans, there are no wonders of the world.

               I don't agree with this at all. I can't even figure out what your position is though - you follow up suggesting I'm the one being egotistical? That's deeply ironic... it feels like you may have missed the point I was making. I don't support going around the universe and blowing up barren planets like Mars either, although I would be in favor of bringing new life to barren worlds. I can easily conceive there are other kinds of intelligent life, both on our planet and off of it; and whether or not humans will ever even meet or know of those species, it is still tragic for them to die off.

               1. altmanaltman · 1790917074 · focus · HN ↗

                  > I would be in favor of bringing new life to barren worlds

                  > you follow up suggesting I'm the one being egotistical?

                  You're literally playing God, and you think that's not egotistical?

                  And again, why is it tragic if you don't even know? How can it be tragic? It's a hypothetical.

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