So apparently we are now in the find out of the fuck around part of climate change. My only question is if Florida is still going to retain it’s electoral votes once it’s fully submerged underwater?
So apparently we are now in the find out of the fuck around part of climate change. My only question is if Florida is still going to retain it’s electoral votes once it’s fully submerged underwater?
And even then, only if it impacts the bottom line.
In the cold war, the Pentagon continually did calculations to see who would be better/worse off after a nuclear confrontation. There were people who thought that if the calculus favored the US at all that was enough to justify a nuclear war.
I’ve always suspected similar models have been used to calculate the impacts of climate change. Billions might die, but if it destabilizes China that’s a worthy sacrifice to maintain US hegemony. Better to be king of a dying world than give up an iota of power.
Couple that with the corporate competitive death drive.
China out-developing the US might be the only real hope.
For Dr. Strangelove Kubrick got a lot of inspiration from the Rand Corporation and other ghoulish orgs and people who were pressing that concept. An example…
I believe he was the first person to use “scenario” in its modern meaning. He needed a way to describe the future in stories as if written by people in the future. He used scenarios to suggest that a nuclear war could be won.
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Ninja edit
I just realized he was a shitposter for evil. He just made shit up to rationalize apocalyptic mass death, destruction, and suffering.
“Look, guys - if the Soviets kill x tens of millions of us but we kill y tens of millions of them - we win. Lemme explain…”
Reading history from back then, it’s terrifying how many airforce generals had to be metaphorically put in a full Nelson while they frothed and screamed to launch! Launch! Launch!
The us air force is about 1/2 completely delusional apocalyptic christian fascist death cult by personnel and it is an existential problem for the world.
The possibility of World War III has been on my mind. But just now I had a surreal thought about how the world could end in negative feedback loop of nuclear war, regular war, and climate change.
Israel goes to war with Iran and because it’s an “extinction war” Israel launches “limited” nuclear strikes which - of course - leads to global chaos, instability, and more war. “Limited” nuclear war is now no longer unthinkable so eventually there’s another. Chaos becomes the norm. Meanwhile - the world has had a sizeable number of regular wars due to the chaos, climate chaos, and the gigantic number of climate refugees. Because all of this - there’s no appetite for cooperation so any workable climate engineering project has any hope of working.
At this point - it hardly matters if there is a World War III or not. The earth is already in a death spiral of chaos, climate chaos, and war.
Idk if our current mode of production regardless where it’s being done really favours the environment though. I’ve read about swathes of the rainforest being cut down to mine minerals to build solar panels. We really need to rethink our relationship to technology and the earth if we want to avoid mass environmental destruction.
It’s too late to avoid it. At this point it’s more about how much can we preserve.
Yeah I agree, my main consideration is a development that in equal steps undermines the power of the West’s governments and bourgeoisie, while also providing a materially beneficial offramp for a critical mass of them. Thus hopefully sidestepping nuclear war and other MAD-like outcomes.
Some of that development might be delayed until some of the ideologically hawkish people die and are replaced by cynical self-interested people who can be bought out.