Quote:
Originally Posted by accord1999
What if we are pricing it in? What if humanity considers the negative and positive externalities and decides that for the current time, the positives outweigh the negative. What are the negative externalities to humanity without rapid, long distance motorized ground and air transport? What are the negative externalities of no heat in winter (just look at Europe restarting coal plants and begging Russia for gas)?
The story of energy over the last 30 years is basically the story of China. Without 2.5 billion tonnes of increased coal consumption/year, it doesn't have the energy to develop, industrialize and get rich.
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The only way that argument makes sense is if you use a short term time frame. Having a 100 year run with living the good life is great for the people living in that time frame, but then everyone living when the consequences come down are screwed.
Humans in general are terrible at looking at anything beyond the shortest term time frames. Alberta's 4th covid wave is a prime example. They could have kept restrictions in for a few more weeks and avoided it all but needed to be 'open for summer' so hundreds of people died.