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A comment on Rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink due to chemicals (2022). Parent comment

Re:Rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink due... by jl6 on Tuesday February 27, 2024 @10:02AM (#39524906)
Arguably climate change risk comes under #1 (not making enough money), because in the most likely climate change scenario, people above a certain wealth threshold will probably survive.

Not saying this will be a pleasant experience. Billions may starve. But that still leaves billions, and the purely mercenary reality is that money is what puts you on one side of that dividing line or the other.

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Re:Rainwater everywhere on the planet is unsafe to drink due... by nonrandomstring on Tuesday February 27, 2024 @10:20AM (#39525109)
From a certain perspective maybe. But I think that would be one coloured by a narrow mentality [0]

In a "purely mercenary reality", what you need to survive is not wealth, but peace, and that is something you cannot buy with many of the futures we're now looking at.

In a funny way, PFAS is a great metaphor. Forever chemicals have now been found in places nobody would ever have predicted. Bad things have a way of spreading in ways you won't see until they're at the gate. It might not be a good idea to bet the farm on isolationism and exceptionalism.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_mentality

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