[not_jd_salinger]

Why is this being downvoted? I've notice a disturbing trend on HN where bad news is downvoted.

It's unquestionably too late to prevent global warming, and mitigation is only possible if we seriously consider organized economic down scaling. This is stuff people have known about for decades and strangely enough took more seriously in the 70s than they do now.

Carbon emissions grow every year and the rate they are growing at continues to rise as well. Fossil fuel usage continues to rise (globally, local changes are meaningless). The only time we see any serious reduction in emissions is during massive economic down turns.

Many argue that people won't accept a change of lifestyle, but that change is coming either way. Since virtually no one I've chatted with will even take economic reduction seriously I'm pretty certain it is "too late" in every sense.

Downvoting comments like this because you wish it wasn't true is really unfitting of a community that prides itself on being 'hackers' and understanding how the world works.

[blamestross]

There has been an observable conservative and libertarian culture shift in hacker news while I have been a member. This community is about startups and extraction of money. The "hacker" part has been dying by simply being outnumbered for a while now.