Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene?

Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by happyscrappy on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @08:45PM (#9300876)

Said every doomsday prophet ever. No one ever comes back and says sorry we were wrong they just change to some other claptrap. Life is too short to listen to these people.

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by meric on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @11:46PM (#9301417)

In fact, I've already said brc might be right and decided to change to some other claptrap.[1]

No one ever comes back and says they're glad they convinced someone - they just switch targets and find new people to call doomsday prophets and bloviating windbags.

Thank you for your prejudice and have a nice day.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9300899

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by brc on Wednesday April 01, 2015 @01:13AM (#9301759)

For the record I appreciated your comment but can't reply there. It shows a willingness to consider a position. I'm guessing you're probably young, and young people have a torrent of "the end of the world is nigh" thrown at them these days. It's tough to see above this and think optimistically. But the key to a calm mind is to think optimistically, tempered with rational 'what if' thinking, so if bad events do come to pass, it's not earth shattering.

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by gress on Wednesday April 01, 2015 @11:16AM (#9304274)

How do you account for the failure of past civilizations? What is different this time?

I'm all for optimism, but optimism and ignoring problems are very different things.

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by gress on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @10:35PM (#9301190)

You do realize that this attitude will lead to ignoring the one time when there is real danger. Is that what you want?

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by happyscrappy on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @11:16PM (#9301308)

I am a wild and crazy guy, I will take the chance that bloviating windbags are full of it.

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Re:Should we be suspicious of the idea of the Anthropocene? by kjs3 on Tuesday March 31, 2015 @09:42PM (#9301060)

The best part of predicting the end of the world is that if you do it long enough and shamelessly enough, one day you'll get to be right.

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