Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

This is a planet of homeostasis on an individual and complete system level. I personally think technology will save us in the end. The distinction between HUMANS and THE EARTH is an arbitrary one. Not saying the humans are not the problem but they are also likely the solution and I do not mean by trying to conserve. From a certain view it's balance again as our tech evolves to solve this just have to take the long view.

I feel blessed to have been born before the information age and be able to watch all this tech/magic evolve. (I hate the word blessed). Imagine a Replicator (ala Star Trek) or Nanobots.When we can remake the world on a molecular level I doubt there will be much to worry about except who controls it. I have seen estimates that we are 20 years away from that.

I have not participated in the XMAS ritual for more than 20 years. I will be riding my bike for groceries tonight after traffic dies down. I live where I work so no commute. I buy used when practical. I cook everything I eat from whole foods. My dog also eats whole foods. I did have three kids but hey sex is fun and shit happens.

Worry is silly. Change is the only constant. Don't believe THEM.

 

That is an incredibly naive viewpoint but hey, it is what it is.

 

Let's be real guys. We need a new Lorax Khan to check our degenerate civilization by plague and sword.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_Empire#Environmental_impact

 

As Nas said, “Life's a bitch and then you die.” No amount of sackcloth-wearing, wailing, or gnashing of teeth on my part is going to do one iota to stop the earth from burning if that is what it’s going to do. I’m going to enjoy the hell out of my life the best way I know how and I’ll raise my kids to do the same and hopefully they’ll raise their kids to do the same. And when the party stops, it stops.

 

What if Alan Rickman shows up to your party and starts shooting people in the head? They made a movie about that.

 

Two planets meet both of them are not too well, one asks the other what he is suffering from, vulcanism is the answer.
“Oh poor boy that will last I only got humans”

 

Do not upgrade your hifi/headphones regularly.

Have to admit that, more and more, I measure my projected life span against the predictions.

India is trying hard to compete.

 

No what is naive is confusing the result of research with the predictions based on research.
The scientist who work on the edge of what we know understand very well the science limits in establishing cause and effect. Channelling Greta Thunberg is not a substitute for understanding, although it may feel that way.

 

I know plenty of boomer conservatives where I'm at in FL who do believe that Greta Thunberg need to shut up and go back to school or become married. One even suggested she should be shot since she is a pawn of George Soros.

 

Boomers will never die. They'll find ways to increase their life expectancy, like becoming Futurama heads in jars living in their McMansions. After everything is fully automated, the only employment Millenials will find will be scooping up the turds by those heads using fishtank nets and doing it over and over again as they are the modern day Sisyphus.

In the face of such absurdity, I truly hope for a extinction level eco-castrophe event to wipe our species off the planet to end the misery.

Meanwhile I'm going to dance on the edge of Armageddon Prince 1999-style. In the face of imminent death the only true response is to dance.

 

Yes they understand it so well they all still feel like warning the world that shit's gonna hit the fan. You just had an OK Boomer moment there.

https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/8/5610806

 

Tangentially related

https://news.sky.com/story/al-shabaab-terror-group-bans-single-use-plastic-bags-11427892

 

Die Hard? Harry Potter?

 

Someone wants you scared and hopeless. Scared and hopeless people make better indentured servants. You control your attention. Do not give it away so carelessly. Like the doctor said when I told him I was feeling woozy while watching him perform a vasectomy on me, "stop watching!"

 

Yeah it always comes down to wild conspiracy theory about servitude. The big bad deep state is always out to get your freedoms when it comes down to personal responsibility or doing what's right when you just don't feel like it. Hell, at least you're getting vasectomies

 

Looking at the situation through the lens of Baby Boomers or any other generation is ultimately intellectually limiting. Every generation has its heroes, its monsters.
Our fate was probably being written around the time some bunch of hunter-gatherers said, "Screw this, let's go farming."
I'm sure humans will survive, we are the most adaptable, evolutionary speaking. What we will look like is anybody's guess.

 

While I agree that all the climate-change-will-lead-to-our-extinction talk is bollocks, I don't believe it excuses us from trying to limit its effects. The power to adapt is not evenly distributed - less wealthy societies will have a much harder time than wealthy ones. I think it's incumbent upon the societies that have benefited from burning all those cheap hydrocarbons to try to limit their currently high per-capita emissions, to help developing countries adopt low-emission energy sources, and to help them adapt to the changes that are already inevitable.

 

The suffering and our awareness of it is going to be immense.

 

The science and reality of climate change? I haven't a clue. Don't know where to begin.

In the absence of knowing where to begin, I have to choose who to believe. eg Donald Trump or David Attenborough? Well, that one's easy.

For us ignorant, xkcd does the best job (that can be taken in in a few minutes) I've seen so far on demonstrating the reality of the climate thing. --> https://xkcd.com/1732/

Whether humans survive, long term, remains to be seen. Many will not. Anyway, might be a good idea if our time ends: give the ants a chance, I expect they can do better.

 

When I was young, 20 years ago there was snow, several feet from november to late february, every winter. -20C(-4F) degrees wasn't uncommon and people went along doing their thing at -10C(14F), -15C(5) with snow everywhere, that was the norm

Now, maybe -5C(23F) at the lowest and it's a above 0C(32F) most of the time, if it snows for 5 days total as opposed to 3-4 months, Christmas without snow is still super weird for me. It doesn't take a scientist to see the past 10 years are widely different to the past 30 in some areas of the world.