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Comment by kohanz | Hacker News Reader

How would an early death for some future generation of ours not be motivating to avoid, if possible? I'd rather my kids or grandkids, etc, not have to live on a planet with an unlivable climate situation.

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I guess people have different attitudes and motivations. If you want global action you should motivate most people not just similarly minded.

Also many people are motivated by visible change rather then abstract concepts I think.

"Future for my children" isn't exactly that abstract to most people...

You'd think that then you look at the way older people as a bloc vote in ways that shaft their offspring.

depends, some people don't have the privilege to be thinking decades ahead if their worry is getting enough food to live through the next week.

And yet people voted for social security, medicare, medicaid, and other entitlement programs which caused us to borrow twenty trillion dollars. Not exactly doing the next generation any favors.

The children and grand-children of the wealthy people that makes these decisions won't directly suffer the consequences of global warming.

They are too rich for that, it's not like humanity will be wiped out. Only the billions unable to move from disaster-stroken areas will.

Their world will be worse too, depending on societal changes maybe even considerably so.

Forget about future generations, people knowingly do many things that harm themselves in the future in exchange for gratification now. People can say they care about the future, but how much is actually shown in their actions.

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