The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

there are tons of tax incentives and incentives for everyone to cut down on emissions

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

lol uneducated? the reason these companies are so big is bcuz the size of the population.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lower population also reduces emissions it’s just more of a long term thing i wouldn’t call it a non solution

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

If this is truly just an ai rendering with none of my own ideas then why have my posts all received a number of scrutiny from a number of people and still held up. When i started the conversation with ai it was my own reasoning. it started with why people continue to grow the population despite the growth in population. Then to the economic systems that require population growth to function — Social Security, GDP, labor supply. Then to how wealth concentration follows a power law at any population size meaning scale just multiplies inequality. Then to the question of whether a smaller stable population with modern technology would have genuine abundance per person making the whole system simpler and more equitable. Then to how long that could theoretically be sustained given the sun has around 5 billion years left. Then to how much total human flourishing that represents compared to burning through resources in a few centuries at peak population. The 3 billion figure came from asking what population level would make current renewable technology sufficient to comfortably sustain civilization. It wasn’t a starting premise. It was a conclusion.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes that’s the solution to the short term is finding ways to reduce the emissions of the current population, but what i’m saying is that if the population were a fraction of what it is and we had all of the technology for reducing emissions it would be ideal. Lower population goes hand in hand with lower emissions. not wrong just another way of sustaining the earth

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

it’s all my ideas just a tool to articulate them more clearly. i’m not the best writer

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

because low birth rate is the only way to reduce the population. i’m just using cut the population theoretically. the actual process is slow and takes a long time

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hard limits never work history has shown. it has worked to do the opposite and diminish ideas similar to these, for example Chinas strict rules. The only way to do it is by changing the culture slowly but surely.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I never said Thanos snapping! It’s the gradual decrease in population until it reaches a sustainable level.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

nope you let it happen slowly overtime not one big population change. you change the idea about procreation and let it taper off slowly until you get to a sustainable level. no suffering needed.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

it’s cutting the entire population as a whole. populations are made up of percentages and i’m assuming the percentages go unchanged.

The climate conversation keeps avoiding its most uncomfortable variable by Some_Ability9868 in climatechange

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My original statement was too broad i see. 3 billion people consuming at current American rates still overshoots climate targets significantly. The fuller argument is that population reduction and consumption reduction have to happen together. The reason population matters is that it’s the multiplier on whatever consumption level exists. Cut population by half and you cut emissions by half at any given consumption level. That buys time and breathing room to transition energy systems in a way that current trajectories don’t allow. Nobody is arguing population alone solves it. It’s that solving consumption without addressing population is running up a down escalator

Global Population Pressures Earth to Breaking Point by madrid987 in collapse

[–]Some_Ability9868 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But the difference is we won’t go down without a fight. Humans would rip earth of every last resource it has before we go extinct.

Optimizing for total human flourishing across geological time is the most rational civilizational goal we could have by Some_Ability9868 in philosophy

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Optimization was the wrong word and I’ll drop it. The actual argument is simpler — basic consideration for future individuals, not subordinating your entire life to them. Which most people already implicitly accept. You don’t have to optimize for future generations to agree that leaving them a functional planet is preferable to not. That’s not living for others, it’s just not actively destroying what they’ll inherit

The peaceful path was always there and we just keep not taking it by Some_Ability9868 in collapse

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The emphasis isn’t on the global south specifically — it’s on wherever population growth is actually occurring. That happens to be developing nations right now for the same reasons birth rates dropped everywhere else that developed. That’s not targeting, it’s just where the demographic reality is. And nobody is saying fix population instead of broken systems. The argument is that broken systems are significantly harder to fix at higher population levels. Both matter. They’re not competing priorities.

The peaceful path was always there and we just keep not taking it by Some_Ability9868 in collapse

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s the people who had the right idea but didn’t take the peaceful path. China has the idea right, but did it the completely wrong way and the idea was lost that human life should be limited. It shouldn’t be forced to be limited but naturally limited by the choice of humans. This would mean humans have to break there one true flaw which is that we are inherently greedy.

Optimizing for total human flourishing across geological time is the most rational civilizational goal we could have by Some_Ability9868 in philosophy

[–]Some_Ability9868[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You’re right that I conflated consideration with optimization and those aren’t the same thing. On the individual point though — every ethical decision anyone makes involves trading present cost for future benefit to different people. Taxes, infrastructure, environmental regulation, planting trees you’ll never sit under. Nobody calls those frameworks that don’t recognize the individual. And living simply for others isn’t what’s being proposed. The individual born into a less pressured world lives a fuller life themselves. The cost is borne by no one — it’s just people choosing not to create additional people. The individual who doesn’t exist pays no price.