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

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

Sorry, I don't do black and white.

And we all know it IS going to be some sort of middle, in between gray compromise.

 

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

Of course I would reduce my standard of living to accomplish this goal for it is not just humans who would benefit in the long run. My altruism is not limited to those of my own ethnicity or species.

I've been slowly making changes over the last 3yrs to further this goal but ultimately I am VERY far from truely living in the scenario you describe. I have, however, changed my mind such that if I were to reduce my standard of living to your described levels I could remain happy.

 

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

I think you're being optimistic (that there will be planes left for rich people to fly). If your options 1, 2 and 3 come true, I think you can pretty much guarantee a nuclear war and annihilation of all 'priviledged' and otherwise societies. 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.

 

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

Bah! This is a game, not reality. lol

 

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

Naa, screw them like our grandparents did us!
We didn't heed the message when it was given to us in the late 60's early 70's. Conserve, SOAR= Save or American Resources, Recycle....
A lot of us now in 2008 still haven't heard the message...
Gas Crisis, ring a bell? Did we listen, only for a few years, then right back to wasting gas with the reintroduction of the six cylinder, today the Cross over's and SUV's...
We're going right down the crapper filled with our own waste......

 

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

Going the opposite direction, my grandmother's grandfather (in the Civil War) was the great-grandson of a major in the Revolutionary War (that's one more generation than you listed). I kinda think what he and others like him did was important to my way of life, not to mention our country's example of democracy and freedoms to other governments that have come along since then.

Because of his actions, I remember his name (Major Joseph Lindsley) and know at least a part of his life. So I think you're artificially distancing yourself from your descendents, as a way of rationalizing this. You would help a stranger you just met (as long as they are not a bum or dangerous), why not do the same for your progeny?

I'm not sure your statement is necessarily valid. I'm living on 25% of the gasoline I did 4 years ago (for personal transportation) with no change in lifestyle - more saved money is only effect, actually. Many of the changes will not cost more in the long run. That doesn't apply to all of the changes needed however. Housing will be the biggest problem - many outlying suburbs will likely become blighted. Any new houses will need to be built with the square footage that houses in the 1950's had, but with today's windows and insulation standards, and passive solar, etc. We'll still have electricity and computers and TVs (just not updated every 3 years). Most people will have a vehicle (electric) of some kind and a couple bicycles, rent a hybrid for big trips. B&B's won't go away, but ocean cruises would, and a lot of hotels on tropical beaches would close. (Saves the trouble of moving them inland as oceans rise).

 

It's not just our own loved ones we need to be concerned about. Ultimately, it's the fabric of life. Habitat and biodiversity sustain and strengthen us all. Everything exists within narrow parameters, and we're screwing with those delicate balances without having any idea what we're doing.

Well, yes. But it doesn't have to be that way.

Ocean liners could evolve, maybe sprouting sails...and...exercise bicycles wired to generators...and... crappers hooked into a biomass energy generation system.

 

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

What hole did you pull that number out of?

Did you mean to say fantasy? This is nonsense.

 

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

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.

 

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

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?

 

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

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.

 

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

This is were they American way will help us.

Now that's just crazy talk!

 

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

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.

 

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

Atlantis?

 

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

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.

 

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

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.