There are tribal societies that have been stable for tens of thousands of years. Modernity is an inherently unstable system.
With which average lifespan and enduring what pain? What was the solution for, say, a tooth going south?
Medicine was ugly back then. Between 1% to 1.5% of all the woman giving birth would die while doing so in 1600. Something insane like that. We've literally gone down at least 30x.
Also back then women couldn't really decide whether they'd become pregnant or not.
At 17 years old or so I got a medical emergency: doctor diagnosed an appendicitis that was missed a few days earlier for I was under strong painkillers. When it was diagnosed a few hours later I was undergoing surgery.
In 1600 I could very well have died of peritonitis / infection without the surgery. I see all those years I lived since then as pure win, thanks to modernity.
It comes at a cost but I live better than any king has ever lived (except for those who live/lived in modern times).
I had a terrible fever when I was 3, I probably wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for modern health care. Beyond that, though, I've only needed modern healthcare for ailments caused by modernity: Tooth problems from sugar and not chewing enough, and also I was hit by a car.
Talking about cruel healthcare practices, though, can you imagine being on your back with a tube shoved down your throat for weeks while you slowly suffocate to death like some of those peeps in the COVID wards?
3 of my 4 grandparents are dead, and all but one died in slow, drawn out and excruciatingly painful ways.
We kinda do. We just have an irrational fear of it.
The fact that we let irrational fears override real and pressing problems is an indicator that the problems aren't perceived as real and pressing enough.
Yet.
You are talking about nuclear, aren't you? I agree with you that nuclear is part of the solution. The pragmatic in me just insists that we cut drastically fossil fuel consumption after enough nuclear reactors are in operation.
And that seems like a good idea.
Well, in parallel. There’s quite a bit we can do while we build, but we need to build.
For example, biking more for short journeys not just cuts emissions, it is also healthy, makes you happier, and reduces congestion.
Having company doesn't mean that preference isn't selfish and short-sighted though.
Here are some of the planetary costs of the industrial revolution:
> The contemporary rate of extinction of species is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the background extinction rate
> 7% of all species on Earth may have been lost already
> only around 3% of the planet's terrestrial surface is ecologically and faunally intact
> roughly one million species face extinction within decades as the result of human actions
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction
If you believe Sky Daddy only cares about humans, or that we out-value all other life on the planet because we invented rocketry and antibiotics, then I guess this is all fine. But I don't, and I'm not alone either.
Just as we can have capitalism without poverty, we can have industry without apocalypse. It'll upset some extraordinarily wealthy fossil fuel people, but they're the ones who put us in this mess.
Just how? I've not yet heard a proposal for a plan that is expected to work.
And I am sure I am not alone.