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pacifist

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I'm a pacifist.

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"the China story will stagnate if a serious effort at helping the bottom half of Chinese does not develop"

So 800,000,000 people raised out of extreme poverty is a lie? Sounds like the bottom half is being well taken care of over there.

My fathers's dear friend Stese was close with the old brewmaster at Anchor Steam. He was in his 90's at the time and one day he told Stese to start following him around the brewery and watch how he did things so he could take over for him when he was gone. Stese dutifully observed the brewmaster and took over his duties when he died. Soon there was a kid following him around taking notes on a clipboard. Fritz Maytag took over the operation, expanded it, bought a fleet of trucks and gave steam beer in SF a second life.

I'm afraid that we're going the wrong direction on this. Purple Sea Urchin's(probably from ship ballast) are decimating the kelp forest on the west coast of US. Same with our terrestrial forests only we are the ones doing the damage there. Sorry to be a downer but I'm thinking we're screwed.

Do you have any examples of a successful technological solution? We've never been here before so there are no examples in either category. It's clear that we need massive changes in behavior to stop dumping CO2 and other more potent greenhouse gases, such as methane, into the atmosphere(stop driving, don't fly, and, I'm sorry, no more babies). At 8 billion and counting, we've outstripped the planet's ability to sustain life(see Holocene Extinction Event[1][2]). It's possible we could augment these behavioral changes with sequestering efforts using technology that hasn't been invented or brought to scale yet. We'll see. I would also suggest that you pressure your political leaders but to date that approach seems to be fruitless. Politicians are all talk and no action, especially when it means pushing back against their petroleum industry donors. So we need to take things into our own hands. If we don't, and keep going down this road, we are headed straight for 4+ degrees of global warming and billions of people dead. As well as most other life on the planet. [1] https://rebellion.global/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

Don't be discouraged by posts in this thread. Yes, you can make a difference. I've been driving a biodiesel for 20+ years. I hardly drive these days anyway. As a dev you're in a good position to pull it off. Just stop driving(walking/cycling is good for you and good for the earth), don't fly, and no more babies. Do you really want to bring a child into what's coming down the pike?

I looked into the vegan vs locavore tussle and it seems to me they fought to a standstill. So I still eat meat(I'm low carb for health reasons). I buy from the farmers market and I'm lucky to have access to a local bison farm(carbon negative - look it up).

He is citing Bellingcat - an outfit that has been thoroughly discredited and who's only use is as a cutout for spy agencies to spread their lies. Not ad hominem. Just facts. Here is the definition in case you were wondering:

ad hominem: adj. Attacking a person's character or motivations rather than a position or argument. adj. Appealing to the emotions rather than to logic or reason. n. To the man; to the interests or passions of the person.

Bellingcat? Really? You know they're a cutout for the western spy agencies and can't be trusted ever. They get debunked on the regular. The guy that supposedly runs it says he got his training playing video games!

As an aside, I really dislike the increasing use of "tipping points"

Tipping points have been part of the conversation all along. They are a reality we have to deal with. Sounds to me like you need to come to terms with that reality: that we have a huge problem barreling towards us and we need to respond urgently, immediately and dramatically.

Earth is not overpopulated

Beg to differ. Exhibit A: climate change. Your solution would not ameliorate climate change. In fact it would likely exacerbate it. We need as much of the land as possible to be rewilded(left alone to maximize CO2 absorption and heal the planet). And stop having babies. Do you really want to bring a child into the nightmare we are barreling towards?

I'm not going to peruse that list because I know how the Dems kneecapped Bernie: with super delegates. During Clinton's primary run against Obama the super delegates kept their mouths shut until the convention. Which is how it was intended to work when the super delegates were set up in the 70s. In 2016 however, the super delegates for Clinton were very vocal early on, giving Clinton an insurmountable lead right out of the gate. Several states voted for Bernie and he won the "regular" delegates but ended up losing the state because of the super delegates. When the DNC was sued for defrauding the Bernie supporters lawyers for the DNC argued in open court that they didn't have to run a fair primary because they're a private corporation. It's beyond me why anyone would have anything to do with the Democratic party at this point. They are corrupt and they don't care that you know it.

Unfortunately analogies to The Matrix abound in the US these days. Most people get their information from 6 mainstream media corporations that were left(down from 50) after the 1996 Telecommunications Act eliminated restrictions on monopolies in media. That's 6 billionaires determining what everyone gets as news. So yeah, welcome to the matrix: red pill or blue?

"but the slow change of attitudes and policy in the US" as shepherded by the mainstream media. Yes, we disagree as to the complicity of the media and criminal justice system. I believe that they sold their souls for a paycheck a long time ago. We all have our price but I hope I would get a more than that in the bargain.