Climate change could mean the extinction of our species

[filghy2]

But hey...if you're comfortable with deforestation many of our green areas, then who am I to debate that!
But it will be interesting to see an concrete jungle where the Amazon rainforest once was.....

At least now I know I'm not on your blocked list.

FYI, the predominant reason for Amazon deforestation is not to build concrete cities but for farming, especially cattle grazing which is subsidised by the Brazilian government. So if you really want to stop it you should eat less beef. Resisting policies to move away from fossil fuels is certainly not going to help the Amazon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defore...zon_rainforest

[filghy2]

The article MrFanti posted is about the exploitation of Congolese cobalt miners. I’m surprised to find MrFanti is concerned with worker exploitation anywhere. He must’ve thought the article was about deforestation. Certainly deforestation is often a problem whenever any kind of mine is under a forest, whether it’s a cobalt mine in Africa, a copper mine in Arizona or an open pit coal mine in West Virginia that levels a mountain. Cobalt is used in the manufacture of lithium batteries (like the one you’re probably using right now). Coal is used in…well you know.

Mr Fanti proclaims himself to be a libertarian. Don't they believe that governments should not interfere in transactions between private parties? No wonder he never wants to talk about solutions.

The article referred to Chinese-owned mines in Africa. I don't doubt that there are bad things going on, but they also exploit their own workers back home. China is the world's biggest coal producer by a long way, followed by India and Indonesia, all of which have weak worker protections. The number of exploited workers producing coal would be way larger than those producing cobalt for batteries. In any case, the real solution is to pressure governments in these countries to improve worker protections, just as the advanced economies did after the industrial revolution.

[filghy2]

?? I'm not sure there's really been much discussion. You remember when you tried to distract from a conversation about gun control by posting an article about marijuana overdose deaths you hadn't read? Sorry. I'm feeling nostalgic

I'm certainly not intending to waste much further time 'debating' with the master of the non sequitur.

I suspect the focus on population is just a handy pretext for dismissing any consideration of how to change peoples' and companies' behaviour; eg "what's the point in us changing when the real problem is the billions of people in the rest of the world?" As we can infer, Fanti does not to raise these other issues because he actually wants something done about them. The 'whataboutism' is just a device to divert discussion away from policy solutions he finds ideologically unpalatable.

[Ben]

Climate Crisis Is Killing Off Key Insects and Spreading Insect-Borne Diseases:
https://truthout.org/articles/climat...orne-diseases/

[MrFanti]

Climate Crisis Is Killing Off Key Insects and Spreading Insect-Borne Diseases:
https://truthout.org/articles/climat...orne-diseases/

Yep!
When all the natural land areas are slowly being reduced due and turned into concrete & asphalt due to "urban growth" (i.e., over population) what does one expect?

The planet is a finite size and can only tolerate a finite amount of humans - an example of this is are desert environments complaining about lack of water. Well duh, those desert environments can't handle multiple cities of millions....

But hey, if one chooses to believe that the planet can handle an infinite amount of humans, then go on......

[Stavros]

Yep!
When all the natural land areas are slowly being reduced due and turned into concrete & asphalt due to "urban growth" (i.e., over population) what does one expect?

The planet is a finite size and can only tolerate a finite amount of humans - an example of this is are desert environments complaining about lack of water. Well duh, those desert environments can't handle multiple cities of millions....

But hey, if one chooses to believe that the planet can handle an infinite amount of humans, then go on......

If you took a keener interest in demography -plenty of posts on the subject in this section over the years- you would be aware that most demographers think 10 billion is the maximum and that human growth is already slowing and more generally will show a marked decline around 2050. That doesn't make it easy for people like you who will be around long after I am gone, and there is then the question of balanced or unbalanced societies with regard to cohorts of old and young, but you could look on the bright side and believe that green policies and population decline will make Planet Earth more appealing in 2082 than Mars. Maybe even cheaper.

But who has the greater obsession with transforming precious arable land into concrete -China or Israel?

[Ben]

It's increasingly difficult to remain optimistic...

Major sea-level rise caused by melting of Greenland ice cap is ‘now inevitable’: https://www.theguardian.com/environm...e-27cm-climate

[Ben]

Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aims:
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...climate-crisis

[Ben]

War Spending Like This as the Climate Emergency Grows Is a Global Nightmare:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...obal-nightmare

[Ben]

Lula's Win a Victory for Amazon Rainforest and Global Climate:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...global-climate