| I can assure you if tomorrow we woke up and the world was 2 degrees hotter and people were dying left right and centre from it, the same thing would have happened with climate change. > Average age lets say 79 as the virus progresses No idea what you're on about. Most people in the UK don't even make it to 79 as is, nevermind with a highly contagious and dangerous virus floating about. > Instead the Uk seems to be willing to throw its entire GDP at this problem, 3 trillion pounds Again, what are you on about? The British government has definitely invested (invested, think about that word) a huge sum of our GDP at this problem, but everyone I've spoken to here has been more than happy with this decision even though we're all the fortunate ones that have managed to keep our jobs. Thousands of people are already dying from this in one small concentrated area in Italy, in a matter of weeks. Shall we just say fuck it and let thousands more die here too? Should the whole world say the same thing? Shall we let the entire economy hit the sort of fucked levels we haven't seen since like WW2? There are many problems in the world, sure. Not so many of them are as simple as a deadly virus plaguing the planet. You think we can just spend 15% of our GDP in a single year and solve obesity, climate change, and air pollution? Also shouldn't you be celebrating since this has massively cut down on CO2 emissions and is already changing many people's commuting/working habits, possibly permanently? > Is it just because Coronavirus does it spectacularly in 3 months and all of those other things take decades? Yeah something that can fuck humanity in 3 months is definitely worth putting some more thought in to than something that won't be felt for decades away. How can you write a sentence like that and not understand it at the same time? |
That’s the point he’s making though, we’re overcommitting resources to this problem because we can see it. Once climate change is apparent enough for people to panic, it’ll be too late.
> Thousands of people are already dying from this in one small concentrated area in Italy, in a matter of weeks. Shall we just say fuck it and let thousands more die here too? Should the whole world say the same thing? Shall we let the entire economy hit the sort of fucked levels we haven't seen since like WW2?
Looking at the data from Italy, 98% of the people who died were retired, had pre-existing conditions, and were making no noticeable economic contribution. I’m not saying that economic utility should be what determines someone’s value of life, but the argument that spending trillions of dollars to save the lives of some 85-year-olds “avoids economic disaster” makes no sense. If a world leader were acting in a purely Machiavellian manner, they would let the virus run its course as quickly as possible so productivity could return to normal.