• batsforpeace [any, any]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    longtermist techbro whisperer argues that’s ok because it wouldn’t lead to complete collapse:

    One finds the same insouciant attitude about climate change in MacAskill’s recent book. For example, he notes that there is a lot of uncertainty about the impacts of extreme warming of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius but says “it’s hard to see how even this could lead directly to civilisational collapse.” MacAskill argues that although “climatic instability is generally bad for agriculture,” his “best guess” is that “even with fifteen degrees of warming, the heat would not pass lethal limits for crops in most regions,” and global agriculture would survive.

    also from 2023:

    “We barely have enough water and you’re diverting even more for others to use,” says Yang Kuanwei, a tomato farmer bemoaning government water policies in Taiwan’s southern Tainan county, where chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, is building a state-of-the-art factory.

    In 2021, an absence of seasonal typhoons left reservoirs so parched, chipmakers like TSMC were forced to truck in water to keep factories running.

    For the third year in a row, rice farmers in southern Taiwan have not been allowed to plant their crops. Instead, the government is paying them subsidies to not grow rice this season, because it uses scarce water that semiconductor plants nearby need.

    “When there is no rain, things grow at the wrong time,” says Zhang Meixue, head of one of the local farmer’s associations in southern Tainan county, once one of the island’s prime rice-growing areas. “Growing rice protects the local ecology by locking in moisture and keeping ground temperatures stable.”

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      he notes that there is a lot of uncertainty about the impacts of extreme warming of 7 to 10 degrees Celsius

      Well - I guess the “uncertainty” is how fast we actually get Mad Max mobiles. I’d say more but I don’t want to fed post.

      • DragonBallZinn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        I used to think that in order to be in tech you had to be smart. Sure, intelligence =/= morality as there are many smart horrible people, but it still stings to see a “scientific” institution be so anti-intellectual.

        I suppose in STEM, the S is silent.