Those examples you mention are pretty insignificant compared to the global warming crisis we are experiencing now. Reading history won’t really help, because we have never faced what we have faced now in human history: manmade global warming in an industrialised, highly specialised society.
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
50 years ago most waterways in the US were so polluted as to be dead to wildlife. Cities buildings were black with pollution.
Global warming is actually minor compared to the immediate death people were facing decades ago. For example unchecked ozone depletion could have resulted in the destruction of all rice crops on Earth. An analogy that comes to mind is the Black Plague vs Covid. It’s not that Covid wasn’t (isn’t) a problem. And like Covid we are deploying modern technology to fix the problems. Solar is being installed everywhere. The US is going backwards temporarily. But the US isn’t the world. Europe and China are getting things done.
People who see the problems are the absolutely not the ones who should be killing themselves. They’re the only ones that can contribute to the future.
someacnt@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
Difference is that, those problems had relatively easier solution which was being worked on. This does not hold for global warming, we are not even trying!
Honestly, it’s pathetic that you try to look at things rose-tinted. Is it that hard to accept imminent crisis?
Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
It required global cooperation to ban CFC’s and restore the ozone layer. It required destroying large corporations so the the rivers could be clean again. These things were done and can continue to be done.
Absolutely not true. 1.08 terawatts of power are solar in China. 1.6Terrawatts in US. 107.6 GW in Germany. France has always been Nuclear. Massive EV adoption in China and Europe.
I grew up in the 1970’s when you couldn’t swim or fish in the rivers. The city was filthy, and not in today’s sanitized “oh there’s some trash”. Every surface in the city was covered in black grime. Moths in cities evolved into black variations because cities weren’t white concrete- they were black grime. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth_evolution
Statues were crumbling from acid rain.
Image
The world is so much cleaner than 50 years ago.
This is what has been done recently: Image Image
Past improvements don’t mean we need to stop!
queermunist@lemmy.ml 3 hours ago
Climate change isn’t the same as cleaning up litter? It’s on a global scale of gigatons of emissions, involving every industrialized nation all interacting together with the environment.
This is bigger than anything in human history. Stop fucking comparing it to cleaning up some fucking tires in a river.