Outgoing special rapporteur David Boyd says ‘there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand how grave this is’ ( www.theguardian.com )

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/9336139

He mentiond climate change and pollution , well worth a read IMO

“The future is really daunting for people in the Maldives … the climate emergency is an existential threat that overshadows all the other issues.”

over 40 million people have died of air pollution since I became special rapporteur in 2018, yet I just can’t get people to care.

“I can’t get people to bat an eyelash. It’s like there’s something wrong with our brains that we can’t understand just how grave this situation is.”

“I think the right to a healthy environment is actually the foundation that we require to enjoy all other human rights. If we don’t have a living, healthy planet Earth, then all the other rights are just words on paper.”

If we don’t have a living, healthy planet Earth, then all the other rights are just words on paper.

I get his bemusement, just here in Australia, 11,000 die from air pollution from cars annually, another 20,00 are hospitalised annually. The numbers are beyond horrendous and yet, on a scale of 1 to 5 fucks given, it's 0

Infynis ,
@Infynis@midwest.social avatar

Humanity's strongest trait evolutionarily, except for maybe our intelligence, is our endurance and ability to shrug off injury. I think the mindset that caused, is the reason we're so slow to address problems

nova_ad_vitum ,

Also carbon-driven climate change is the largest tragedy of the commons possible (at our current tech level) and humans have never successfully conducted the level of cooperation required to solve it.

Closest analog is CFC-driven ozone layer decay. That was mostly solved because the solutions aren't that painful . I don't really care that all aerosol cans work a little worse now that we don't put CFCs in them. Climate change isn't that . The solutions require deep, painful, and expensive change. Easier to just pretend everything is fine and ignore it.

Beryl ,

And that thing is called greed. (see also : egoism)

scytale ,

It’s 2 things IMO:

  • Boiling frog. A lot of people can’t see beyond a few years ahead, so if it’s not something that drastically changes immediately, they won’t really care. Until it’s too late of course.

  • Too big, too global. A lot of people can’t see beyond their own circle/bubble. So someone from Florida might not care that the Maldives is sinking and disappearing, but will maybe be alarmed when Florida starts.

mranachi ,

There is a third. We are unable to grasp things we've not experienced in our lifetimes are possible. So, global famines can't happen in modern society, wealthy democratic nations don't collapse and we can't cause the extinction of our species.

Got some hard lessons coming our way

arin ,

We think inflation is bad, oh that's the least of the worries in a few decades... Water wars, we'll probably migrate to the new jungle in Antarctica

HubertManne ,
@HubertManne@kbin.social avatar

I think there are many that understand how grave it is but for someone of us we can't do anything much more effective than not reproduce although we also try what we can with reducing, reusing, recycling and such.

pythonoob ,

How are people dying of air pollution? Like, lung diseases are at an increase?

What does the hospital call it if someone dies of air pollution?

floofloof ,

It causes respiratory problems, lung disease including cancer, cardiovascular problems including heart attacks and strokes, and premature births, among other things. Any of these can be fatal.

https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/air-pollution

pythonoob ,

That's insane. Thanks for the link

shalafi ,

Yeah, but OP's question, and mine, is how exactly do they link a death to air pollution. Seems like saying a particular weather event was caused by global warming.

floofloof ,

No one is claiming to be able put pollution as the cause of each particular death. As with climate change, the effect is visible in the statistics, and the mechanisms that explain such an effect are understood. To say that over 40 million have died of air pollution is an estimate based on statistical data and our best scientific models.

shalafi ,

I figured all that, but it seems statistically impossible to wrangle. Should have took stats in college I guess.

Transporter_Room_3 ,
@Transporter_Room_3@startrek.website avatar

.... "our"?

Prunebutt ,

Line mut go up, tho!

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