The problem with your viewpoint is that it’s little more than a thought experiment. Realistically, you will never get all 8 billion people who inhabit this planet to make the necessary lifestyle changes needed to combat climate change.

https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors

This one throws has some good figures: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-overview

Sources we could attribute to individuals:

• Transportation (15%): including public transport
• Buildings (6%): this includes energy usage and waste

In total, 21%. Even if we said that’s still a 21% we could do something about, besides switching to a green energy provider and using an EV instead of diesel cars (which is a good move though sourcing the Lithium-Ion batteries these EVs is a big problem in and of itself), what else is there for the average Joe to do? Companies and governments should give individuals the option to lead a sustainable lifestyle. At the moment, the reality is the options simply do not exist or are so expensive that are out of reach for the vast majority of consumers.

On the other hand, we have industrial and public usage…

• Electricity and heat production (non-residential), which was (as of 2019) the leading source of global carbon emissions, accounting for 34% of the total emissions.
• Industry (24%)
• Agriculture, forestry, etc. (22%)

That’s a staggering 80% altogether.

You ever heard of the Pareto principle? It says that 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. In this case, 80% of the emissions come from a minority of people (industry, corporations, etc.).

Someone said to me once “Relax! Nothing is under control.”

Worry about what you can control —which is very little, especially when facing a world crisis like climate change— and accept what you can’t.

The people who should be fixing this mess are not you or I. It’s the big corporations and the Governments that should regulate them through robust, uncompromising climate policies. Vote for Governments with honest, solid climate agendas.

Other than that, contributions from individuals like you and I are but a drop in the boiling ocean of global warming. By all means, keep doing what you’re doing. It certainly doesn’t hurt to lead a more sustainable lifestyle but don’t feel bad if you don’t do everything you’re supposed to do. Don’t let the real culprits here gaslight you into thinking otherwise.

Again, if you’re worried more about your mental health than the problem itself at this stage, it’s ok to feel that way. Many of us do. But the best advice I can give you is to just accept there’s nothing you can really do about the situation. Whatever happens, happens. Easier said than done, I know, but once you “learn” to accept this fact, your anxiety will drop right down.

MediEvil. The original, not the remake of course.

ML/LLMs applied sensibly is definitely not snake oil.

Peddling ML/LLMs as AI and saying it will be the biggest paradigm shift ever seen is definitely snake oil and a lot of people just looking to capitalise on the latest fad, just like blockchain, “Big Data” or the metaverse.

Tech companies were struggling to raise funds in the bearish market that followed the pandemic tech boom. They were desperately looking for something big and shiny to use to persuade investors into loosening their wallets, and they’ve struck gold with “AI” because it sounds so cool and it can “basically do anything”, including replacing loads of staff with bots. Investors are being very easily bamboozled by this. Of course FOMO plays a big role here too.

I think “AI” is close to its peak of inflated expectations on the Gartner hype cycle curve below and it will take a while for people to wake up to the realisation that the “Bright AI-fuelled Future” they had been sold is nothing more than a thin wrapper around a ChatGPT API with a pretty bow on top.

I’m not disputing that certain super foods are just marketing but I would also say that almost no food is healthy when consumed in excess.

“Regular consumption of coconut oil may raise cholesterol levels and is high in saturated fats”. How regular are we talking about? Every day? Every week? What amount of oil? A few ml or 3L? And what kind of cholesterol are we talking about here? The good one or the bad one?

Coconut oil may well be a nutritious, healthy oil when eaten sensibly, just like eating nuts is very good for you but you don’t want to eat too much at once because they are very high in calories.

Sure, but only as far as science doesn’t contradict their religious beliefs. For example, there are many Creationist Christians who reject Evolution, Natural Selection and the Big Bang.

Not sure about that. It takes a pretty big leap to go from believing in 0 gods to 1. I think the line dividing atheists from theists is a pretty huge rift because they hold opposing views on very fundamental matters like the concept of God itself, how the world came to be, our purpose in life, what happens after we die… I don’t think it’s something you can quite reduce down to a matter of numbers.

Thanks ChatGPT!

Lol, knowing our boy Elon, he would’ve managed to run Parler to the ground even harder than they could ever dream

The x.com domain was originally purchased by PayPal for over $8m back when Elon was still at the company. No one knows how much PayPal asked Elon for it back in 2017 when he bought it from them, but it was rumoured to be an eight digit figure.

The younger voters are indeed pushing fascism, at least in Spain. I had also assumed ultraconservative, nationalist movements would be more popular with the older demographic in Spain but, proving my point that it’s those who didn’t experience Franco’s dictatorship who are buying into the far-right ideals, Vox voters are on average 8 years younger than voters of other parties in the country (apologies for the link to Spanish media).

I don’t know if this is any different in other countries but in Spain the people swallowing the fascist pill are very much your archetypical white, privileged, young male.

Making short-sighted decisions to obtain results quickly is just human nature.

Fascists, populists and demagogues exploit this flaw in human nature to rise up. They promise big things using big words to masses of people who are uneducated, jaded, or both.

Some people in Spain, like in many other countries right now (USA, Greece, Italy…) are turning to fascism because they feel squeezed dry and let down (unemployment, Covid economic hangover, inflation, etc.) by their current governments, so they run to the people sat in the opposite (or most extreme) end of the political spectrum hoping they can turn things around.

With such a simplistic, binary mindset, coupled with a younger generation of voters who have not experienced what it’s like to live in a fascist country, it’s no wonder fascism and belligerent nationalism are gaining traction in the West. I just hope we can turn things around before more European countries follow on Hungary’s steps.

Nope, I stopped browsing Reddit the moment they killed RIF. Now I only get on it if it has the answer to something I googled.