Poll
Question:
Is the state of the world today, the beginning of the end?
Option 1: Yes. Absolutely. No saving it
votes: 1
Option 2: More likely than not
votes: 4
Option 3: 50-50
votes: 3
Option 4: Its possible, though there's a lot of hope
votes: 5
Option 5: Absolutely not
votes: 0
Option 6: Potato
votes: 1
Option 7: Other
votes: 0
So its been quite a year....
So many norms being broken and general fucked upness around.
Is this the new normal and its all down hill from here?
Or can good times be in the future?
I think we may be the closest we have ever been. Sure the Cuban Missile Crisis was pretty close and there were other crises but it feels like those were part of a "game" largely understood and more importantly adhered to by all the major participants.
We do not have that now. The two nuclear superpowers are both led by fascist cleptocracies, with America in particular run by a demented fool. Sure Putin is probably also falling apart slowly but he has a grasp of world politics.
And, not unconnectedly, we are seeing the rapid melting away of the old post-ww2 order. At one hand Russia has been proven to be an absolute paper tiger with "only" their massive nuclear arsenal keeping them at the big boys' table. On the other hand America has lost all willingness and thanks to Trump, ability, to act as a stabilising force while being very happy to be the opposite.
All this seems far more chaotic toe than the cold war era ever was, although I appreciate I am looking back at the latter in hindsight.
I think things spiralling out of control into a global armageddon is a reasonable scenario. Unlikely, but entirely possible.
I wouldn't rule it out personally. The 2nd verse of Abba's Happy New Year certainly feels more relevant than ever given the current world situation.
Wasn't it Erich Kästner who wrote at new year's 31/32 (from memory, so cut me some slack)
Wird's besser? Wird's schlimmer?
Fragt man alljährlich
Seien wir ehrlich
Leben ist immer lebensgefärlich
Yes, we are now at or over 1.5C of warming.
We are definitely in the mitigation phase of global warming.
Quote from: crazy canuck on Today at 10:46:22 AMYes, we are now at or over 1.5C of warming.
We are definitely in the mitigation phase of global warming.
We should be.
The way things are looking at the moment seems far more we are in the "there's nothing we can do anyway. Who cares. We've more important things to do" stage.
Quote from: Josquius on Today at 11:01:13 AMQuote from: crazy canuck on Today at 10:46:22 AMYes, we are now at or over 1.5C of warming.
We are definitely in the mitigation phase of global warming.
We should be.
The way things are looking at the moment seems far more we are in the "there's nothing we can do anyway. Who cares. We've more important things to do" stage.
Depends who is we. The Americans are definitely in don't look up mode.