Is saving the environment worth it if it only if helps our great great great great grandchildren?

[VaPrius]

Originally Posted by burritos

All of this occurs approximately 220 years from now.

What hole did you pull that number out of?

Originally Posted by burritos

this is my game

Did you mean to say fantasy? This is nonsense.

[PriuStorm]

Originally Posted by VaPrius

What hole did you pull that number out of?

I was wondering the same thing.

I think the game would be more interesting if you changed the timeframe to 40 years instead of 220 years.

[jjksutton]

don't we have some kind of responsibility? I don't know generations of people who suffered long before my great great grandparents were a glint in their parents eyes. Their sacrifices gave us the ability to live excessively, as many have chosen to do. How selfish can we be that we don't understand there are consequences of our actions we'll never see or even understand?

[FL_Prius_Driver]

On most games I would adhere to the rules. On this one I am going to cheat with a vengance. I am going to reduce my consumption dramatically while maintaining a high standard of living. I will then educate my children and anyone else paying attention how to do this. Sooner or later, the rest of those watching will catch on and start cheating as well.

[VaPrius]

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

I am going to reduce my consumption dramatically while maintaining a high standard of living.

This is were they American way will help us.

Originally Posted by FL_Prius_Driver

I will then educate my children and anyone else paying attention how to do this. Sooner or later, the rest of those watching will catch on and start cheating as well.

Now that's just crazy talk!

[MarinJohn]

Originally Posted by PriuStorm

Someday, hundreds of thousands of years in the future (maybe longer), evidence of our societies will be unearthed, and future intelligent beings will wonder what happened to us.

Ours won't be the first human civilization to vanish. Consider the Anasazi, the Myans, Easter Island, Atlantis. Perhaps we should start burying plaques now explaining why we were on the verge of extinction so those 'future intelligent beings' aren't as confused as we are about what happened to other vanished civilizations. Perhaps we should rewrite the bible with more modern parables about how we came to a fork in the road and chose the 'road more traveled' to our long term detriment.

[FL_Prius_Driver]

Originally Posted by MarinJohn

Ours won't be the first human civilization to vanish. Consider the Anasazi, the Myans, Easter Island, Atlantis. Perhaps we should start burying plaques now explaining why we were on the verge of extinction so those 'future intelligent beings' aren't as confused as we are about what happened to other vanished civilizations. Perhaps we should rewrite the bible with more modern parables about how we came to a fork in the road and chose the 'road more traveled' to our long term detriment.

Atlantis?

[PriuStorm]

Originally Posted by MarinJohn

Ours won't be the first human civilization to vanish. Consider the Anasazi, the Myans, Easter Island, Atlantis. Perhaps we should start burying plaques now explaining why we were on the verge of extinction so those 'future intelligent beings' aren't as confused as we are about what happened to other vanished civilizations. Perhaps we should rewrite the bible with more modern parables about how we came to a fork in the road and chose the 'road more traveled' to our long term detriment.

Interesting you say this, because that's one thing I've been thinking about, too. The 'ancient' civilizations we have found, we've been able to learn about them because they have memorialized themselves in physical ways that have stood the test of time (pyramids, engravings, tablets, etc.). That just isn't the way we do things anymore.

Pretty much anything we create today, including records of our intelligence and current events, is not something that can stand the test of time. Centuries old farm houses (built out of brick, stone and mortar) in Europe stand a better chance of surviving a calamity than stick houses put up today. More and more, communication is moved online instead of into libraries. Imagine a future being unearthing a DVD and wondering what function it might have had... if it even survives intact.

[PriuStorm]

Originally Posted by burritos

So the question is, would you give up your currently lifestyle for this "crappy but sustainable" lifestyle for a viable future of people...

Seriously, I would like to know if you would give up your lifestyle if you knew for certain that in 40 years the calamities mentioned by the OP would come true.

Or would you be like the 25 year old smoker who thinks that he's not going to be the one who gets lung cancer, or the 20 year old sun queen who is sure that skin cancer will affect someone else, not her.

[burritos]

Originally Posted by PriuStorm

I was wondering the same thing.

I think the game would be more interesting if you changed the timeframe to 40 years instead of 220 years.

I figure very few people get past 100 years. So a threw 2 100 year generations plus 20 years for good measure.