Hacker News Reader

Comment by radu_floricica | Hacker News Reader

The point they made is that more CO2 is not necessarily a bad thing. It's not my place as a non-specialist to judge how likely global warming really is (so I'm not judging) but I do wonder if it's really a bad thing. I mean, everything I know tells me making the earth a bit warmer and richer in CO2 is a good thing. And there is a distinct lack of credible apocalyptic scenarios... most I've seen say basically "there will be losers", i.e. there will be countries where the climate change will make things hotter and more arid. But for me, in central/eastern europe, warmer winters would be great...

View on HN

Ok, here's the issue. We don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing.

The problem: If it's a good thing... whatever. If it's a bad thing... Mass Death. Seriously, that's not an exaggeration. Any slight imbalance and we're talking catastrophe. Unless you don't think natural disasters matter much.

We're not saving the environment we're saving our goddamn selves. The environment isn't even a thing. But humans are, and we need a stable environment to get on with our lives.

I strongly subscribe to the idea that extraordinary claim require extraordinary evidence. Your reasoning also suggests that LCH should be shut down and dismantled immediately, because of the prospect of destroying the Earth or ending the Universe. Also that I should be a believer, because even if the chance is slight, spending an eternity in hell is not an option.

In order to take the "Mass Death" scenario seriously I want to see some credible indication that our environment actually is that fragile. What I do know (and again, I'm not a specialist) is that most catastrophes that actually happened in the distant past would be expensive for our civilization, but not "catastrophic". Worst case scenario would be something like making a 20 degree belt around the equator a desert, while at the same time making Norther Europe/Asia/America greener (or the other way around). Bad? Depends who you ask. Definitely catastrophic for the equator countries, but not for the humanity as a whole.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com