We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism

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A team of researchers from Weizmann Institute of Sciences, Israel, recently published a study that compared human-made mass – aka anthropogenic mass – with all the living mass, or biomass, on the globe. They revealed that for the first time in human history the former has either surpassed the latter or is close to doing so in coming years. The limits of science have never been more glaringly apparent when trying to solve this conundrum. Reliance upon green technological solutions alone is flawed because the focus is still based on new stuff and more use – not to alter lifestyles or business models that handed us this problem in the first place. Even if we can replace all fossil fuel-based vehicles with electric ones, for example, cities are already struggling to take road space from cars and electric vehicles have their own footprint on the world's resources due to the materials needed to build them. Somehow, creating new stuff has become a divine word in the collective human psyche. It's obnoxiously seated in all our endeavours from ancient stories to modern research and development rooms. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth…" goes the Genesis story in Bible. Humans have been conditioned to believe that creating something new is a meaningful purpose of life and is the only way to advance their ambitions. Yet we forget to put a cap on the use. Okay.” Sirius eventually nodded his head, tears dripping down his cheeks. “Okay. No surgery. If that’s what you want, then that’s what…that’s…” Sirius choked on his own words, hiccupping out a small sob.

Yeah! Classes were easy and I only have one assignment to do for Monday.” Teddy grabbed themselves a glass of water and sat down on the empty stool by their dad. Remus glanced over, knowing the look. Teddy wanted something, something that had the potential to be turned down. “I wanted to ask you something.” For climate change, look at your daily habits and see if there are small changes you can make in your life such as how often you walk versus drive and how your home is heated, Bronson explained. It would also require progress on the vexed question of “loss and damage”, which is likely to be a flashpoint at Cop27. Loss and damage refers to the most devastating impacts of extreme weather, which it is impossible to adapt to, and poor countries want a funding mechanism that would allow for the rescue and rehabilitation of countries whose physical and social infrastructure has been destroyed by climate-related disaster. Yes?” Remus raised a brow, slightly confused by the nervousness behind the question. They had sleepovers frequently and it never bothered Remus or Victoire’s parents. They both trusted their children to make smart decisions and, to the best of Remus’ knowledge, they weren’t really even dating. “But..?” His fever from earlier in the week was nothing more than a weird flu he caught from one of his students. He could’ve been fine with another day or two of rest. He wasn’t meant to have cancer. They weren’t meant to find anything. The scan was a precaution, something Remus laughed about when they suggested, because why would it be cancer? Why would the world be so cruel as to make him go through this again ? He was meant to walk out of the hospital with nothing more than a prescription for flu medication and now the doctor was mentioning all sorts of words he had hoped he’d never have to hear again.

To his fellow conservatives, John Derbyshire makes a plea: Don’t be seduced by this nonsense about “the politics of hope.” Skepticism, pessimism, and suspicion of happy talk are the true characteristics of an authentically conservative temperament. And from Hobbes and Burke through Lord Salisbury and Calvin Coolidge, up to Pat Buchanan and Mark Steyn in our own time, these beliefs have kept the human race from blindly chasing its utopian dreams right off a cliff. Missing context. The video clip has been shortened to make Biden sound as if he is saying the U.S. will be “doomed” as White Europeans become the minority. Put in context, it is clear he is not saying this.

The most insidious threat to humankind is something called “ extinction debt.” There comes a time in the progress of any species, even ones that seem to be thriving, when extinction will be inevitable, no matter what they might do to avert it. The cause of extinction is usually a delayed reaction to habitat loss. The species most at risk are those that dominate particular habitat patches at the expense of others, who tend to migrate elsewhere, and are therefore spread more thinly. Humans occupy more or less the whole planet, and with our sequestration of a large wedge of the productivity of this planetwide habitat patch, we are dominant within it. H. sapiens might therefore already be a dead species walking.I think that went very well.” Sirius added unhelpfully from where he stood, Remus throwing up two fingers in his direction. The massive geoengineering process initiated by humans took an accelerated upswing when materials like concrete and aggregates became widely available. These two materials make up a major component of the growth in anthropogenic mass. Even the relatively recent human adventures of space exploration, which began about 60 years ago, is triggering a disastrous space junk problem. Alongside this we haphazardly observe polar cap melts, permafrost thaws, and global temperatures getting hotter .

At last year’s summit in Glasgow, countries agreed to focus on limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, but recent UN reports have shown that current policies would raise temperatures by about 2.5C. For the size of your tumor, I would suggest eight rounds of Oncovin, each round would be weekly. Your tumor is just teetering on the edge of spreading and it’s best if we start you on chemo as soon as possible. If it spreads, it’ll be harder to treat and will have a lower chance of removing it without any surgery.” Yeah, that’d be nice.” Remus was silent for a while before finally speaking up again. “I don’t want Teddy to hate me.”Human life will be negatively affected because of the loss of the many ecosystem benefits and services provided by biological diversity," says Loria. "For example, water pollution may affect provisioning services, such as food and water, by causing a reduction in food diversity and/or in its quality and safety. Widespread degradation of ecosystems threatens the conditions of life on Earth, in particular the long-term survival of our own species." Hillman accuses all kinds of leaders – from religious leaders to scientists to politicians – of failing to honestly discuss what we must do to move to zero-carbon emissions. “I don’t think they can because society isn’t organised to enable them to do so. Political parties’ focus is on jobs and GDP, depending on the burning of fossil fuels.” Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) expands the rollout of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to include more people to be inoculated from July 2, on July 4, 2021. (Photo by Annabelle Chih/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Annabelle Chih/NurPhoto/Getty Images