America! FUCK YEAH

[NinjaEdit]

I believe Tony Abbot lectured G20 on why he won't be addressing climate change.

[wysockisauce]

A global problem like climate change needs global policy enforcement. Until we have some form of global government that has the authority to force polluting countries to pay a carbon tax or submit to a cap-trade system nothing is going to be accomplished.

It sounds straight babylon, but it is the only way. A handful of hippies and environmentalists (hell any group for that matter) isn't going to change society's approach to the environment. Consumerist Americans won't voluntarily cut their per capita carbon impact from 20 tons to 2 tons per year. The Indians and the Chinese won't voluntarily hold back on the progress of their economies to keep some ice from melting.

That being said todays global superpowers will likely never submit to a higher authority like a global government unless some kind of global catastrophe shakes them out of their stupor.

Gonna be a rough ride.

[_ronzlo_]

A global problem like climate change needs global policy enforcement. Until we have some form of global government that has the authority to force polluting countries to pay a carbon tax or submit to a cap-trade system nothing is going to be accomplished.

It sounds straight babylon, but it is the only way. A handful of hippies and environmentalists (hell any group for that matter) isn't going to change society's approach to the environment. Consumerist Americans won't voluntarily cut their per capita carbon impact from 20 tons to 2 tons per year. The Indians and the Chinese won't voluntarily hold back on the progress of their economies to keep some ice from melting.

That being said todays global superpowers will likely never submit to a higher authority like a global government unless some kind of global catastrophe shakes them out of their stupor.

Gonna be a rough ride.

Or... Everything could just collapse and leave a handful of stragglers to start over, which has happened repeatedly throughout our history - unlike the global Babylon scenario. Scary but imminently possible. Add recursive "bootstrapping" of intelligence in AI's and shit just got downright nightmarish.

[mason666]

Lol when has that happened in our history?

[_ronzlo_]

Lol when has that happened in our history?

Globally only once - that we know of:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... xtinction/

http://io9.com/5501565/extinction-event ... out-humans

Regionally? All the fuckin' time. Like, the Black Plague? Problem is we're a global society now, and anything like that kind of pandemic wouldn't be limited to Europe and the near east like the plague.

[sigbowls]

Hack the the whole world and shut off all power, but first warn everyone and telleople to grow gardens and buy a gun and stuff

[mason666]

Lol when has that happened in our history?

Globally only once - that we know of:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... xtinction/

http://io9.com/5501565/extinction-event ... out-humans

Regionally? All the fuckin' time. Like, the Black Plague? Problem is we're a global society now, and anything like that kind of pandemic wouldn't be limited to Europe and the near east like the plague.

lol the black plague, and similar, didn't really leave a 'handful of stragglers' that had to repopulate the earth did it

so by repeatedly throughout our history you mean maybe once 70,000 years ago?

If anything i think some huge epidemic is what the human race needs to ensure our continued survival, like a prescribed burn.

[soronery]

There have been several ELEs that we don't yet fully understand.

Human society goes back way further than many so called experts admit.

[DrGatineau]

BIG UP THE MERICA

LAND OF THE FREE

AND

HOME OF THE BRAVE

[wysockisauce]

If anything i think some huge epidemic is what the human race needs to ensure our continued survival, like a prescribed burn.

What the human race needs, is to learn how to make sacrifices for the benefit of future generations.