I guess I think nothing will change, except a lot of poor people will die. The rich and powerful will never feel consequences, and the future will be fine for them and their heirs. Especially once Elon gives them their self-driving killer robots.
CraigM
5176
I mean that’s what the nobility told themselves in the days leading up to the Bastille too.
Say what you will, but the French gave consequences to the rich.
…and replaced them with a different set of ‘rich and powerful’, who more or less did the same things (I’m looking at you, Bonaparte) and the average Frenchman was really no better off.
Yeah, give it a try, it is pretty tasty. Of course I can tell it’s not meat, so if that’s the threshold it may not work for you, but it passes the ‘tastes good’ barrier for me. They got the texture and taste ok, but it lacks an animal-fat based grease. I think it has some vegetable oil to compensate, but it’s not quite bad enough for you to taste the exact same. Maybe if they used real butter?
I’ve read the Impossible burger is even slightly better, but I haven’t found a place in Canada with it yet. The beyond meat isn’t quite to the level of going out of my way for it (in lieu of other dinner choices) but if I’m looking for a quick meal and A&W is around, it’s getting close to a default choice.
Edit: A&W is also a company worth supporting, they really cut down on their waste and now serve the whole meal in paper instead of foam or cardboard, and the straws aren’t plastic either (they’re a bit weird, but I support it).
Hey, it’s not all a downward trajectory. At least we don’t live under Sumerian god-kings anymore.
…or do we?
Oghier
5180
I don’t know about the progress of the average Frenchman, but the lot of the average person worldwide has been getting better at a pretty good pace for a pretty long time. I think markets and capitalism are part of that trend, though they also grind some into powder.
Yes, I agree.
On that I’m not so sure. Craig is right that the power of the masses is the only thing that has improved people’s lot in life, my cynicism aside. Markets on their own would starve their customers.
But, still: The rich will not suffer from climate change, and for that reason they won’t lift a finger to avoid it. If we don’t kill and eat them, they will inherit the future.
The belief that technology will save us is based in part on the false idea that the trajectory of civilization is a never ending linear path of progress. It’s easy to believe this as it has been the rough path since the start of the industrial revolution but it’s not true historically and it will almost certainly not hold true moving forward.
The other thing to bear in mind when placing your hope in humananity’s ability to innovate our way out of problems is that technology is dependent on civilization on a macro scale and a working economic model on a micro scale.
Perhaps there is a working economic model to support some as yet undeveloped technological solution at the scale necessary to turn the tide but I’m skeptical. Hell, one of the primary reasons we’re not converting to nuclear power is that it’s not economically viable for the companies that would have to build those plants.
The other problem, and folks may not agree with me here, is that by the time things become severe enough for everyone (governments, the energy industry, etc) to get their heads out of their asses and realize that we need to come up with a solution pronto, it will be too late. It will be too late on the climate front but, even more critically, I think civilization as we know it will be on a rapid downwards trajectory at that point. Collapsing economies, war, and the reactionary political lurch toward authoritarianism will mark our decent and we will not be functional enough as a society at that point to develop and implement an impossible technological solution.
As an aside, while conservatives may be the ones preventing us from even starting a dialog on the subject, we shouldn’t kid ourselves that there is a political faction anywhere on the spectrum willing to take the kind of steps necessary to ward off catastrophe at this time. The Green New Deal is a nice start and I’m glad for it but, just to look at one small piece of the puzzle, several years ago, Bill McKibben took the IPCC’s (now woefully optimistic) projections and rubbed them up against the amount of oil in the world that is not just known, but approved for extraction. The consumption of that oil would have, at the time, put us on a course for well over 6 degrees of warming by 2100. A similar analysis today would probably give a worse projection. So who is going to tell those energy companies that they have to leave the oil in the ground? Who is going to reverse the leases that have already been granted?! And how’s that going to play politically?
Timex
5183
Why couldn’t you just do… What France already did once, decades ago?
Unless the entire food chain breaks down, leading to a Permian-Triassic level extinction event! (hey, gotta think positive)
Ah ha! Just read up on that. Yes, a forward thinking government could create a working economic model to support nuclear power. But they won’t. It sounds like even France has begun reversing their highly successful policies on this front?
In theory, though, you are correct — It’s within the realm of possibility. Hooray for a ray of optimism!
This is the glitch in human psychology that we are dealing with, and it will take a heroic effort to overcome it. Possibly a hopeless situation, but as despair is useless, I don’t see much point in dwelling on that.
They will be fine in their bunkers. Unless the people they pay to protect them decide to kill and eat them instead.
More optimism!
As long as they like Campbell’s Soup… forever!
Muahahahahaha
Apparently that’s a Canada thing only for now :(
Nesrie
5190
Red Robin has the Impossible Burger as of 4/1. I tried it. I may or may not be allergic to it. I am going to try again, and it was like 2 dollars more than the regular burger but… it’s there.
In other words, if we don’t solve it, Malthusian effects will actually solve it for us. Just not in anything resembling a solution we’d like.
Which is basically the point. If Civilization and the Global economy collapse, Climate Change will solve itself just fine (for the Climate, not us).
I’ll try that then for sure! :D Thanks
Gardein makes a pretty darn good fake burger, as well. Not the same, but light years better than any Morningstar Farms stuff.
Kind of. I mean, the planet will still be here but I suspect we’re looking at a end-Permian level extinction event and a climate that could be warmer than the Eocene (8 degrees warmer) possibly approaching the Neoproterozoic (over 11 degrees warmer). The Eocene hothouse period lasted for about 100 million years.
So, yes, still a climate capable of sustaining life but radically different from the life we know today and probably tens of millions of years before the poles see ice again.
