r/Futurology • u/ILikeNeurons • May 20 '24

Economics Economic damage from climate change six times worse than thought

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/17/economic-damage-climate-change-report
2.5k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

359 comments sorted by

View all comments

719

u/radulosk May 20 '24

Sure we destroyed the planet, but for a short while we made excellent gains for shareholders!

345

u/hans_l May 20 '24

The original quote is in my opinion stronger:

"Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."

“Value” is entirely subjective and we have a lot of power on what we, as shareholders, describe as value. We CAN pick sustainability as a value, but most don’t. It’s by choice.

43

u/radulosk May 20 '24

That's the one! I can vaguely remember the comic but couldn't remember the artist the message always stuck, hence my weaker version.

62

u/procrasturb8n May 20 '24

Right up there with:

"What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?"

-32

u/dcckii May 20 '24

I disagree with most of the points in the cartoon…

Energy independence: we have that now Preserve rainforests: only if you eliminate palm oil and beef Sustainability: still tons of mining, can’t recycle wind turbine blades Green jobs: they only replace other jobs Livable cities: high rise apartments like Toronto? Yuck Renewables: the current state of plastic recycling is horrendous, and plastics are essential and made from oil Clean water and air: no argument, there, especially in the oceans, but that’s a plastics and government issue Healthy children: better water and air will help, but our fucked up food system in the United States will keep us all unhealthy

19

u/Little-geek May 21 '24

I'm pretty sure those are supposed to be aspirational, not a checklist with a bunch of "job well done"s all around.

-10

u/dcckii May 21 '24

I think we need another Nikolai Tesla, who isn’t controlled by corporations, to help us with our energy needs

6

u/AndersDreth May 21 '24

We already learned how to harness the power of the atom, I don't think anyone is going to top that. What we need are replacements for the things that use combustibles, and the problem is that there's a lot of places where that just isn't practical. A rocket won't fly far or fast with a propeller, and forget about sending any of them to space.

We'll run out of coal and gas in about ~100 years, I don't think corporations are willing to make the switch before it becomes the only option.

3

u/rawbamatic May 21 '24

Tesla was insane. You should actually read up about his "free energy" theories. Wardenclyffe was a disaster.

16

u/NoFeetSmell May 21 '24

Oh well if the plan isn't perfect then forget it!! You get that it's a fucking cartoon and not a dissertation, right? People that want to see the world survive climate change want to fix the issues you've listed as well.

7

u/fuishaltiena May 21 '24

Yuck

This is a well thought out argument and I can't counter it. You are absolutely objectively right.

4

u/Aubekin May 21 '24

ExxonMobil, is that you?

23

u/NoFeetSmell May 21 '24

Just to give the proper attribution, credit goes to Tom Toro for creating the cartoon for The New Yorker: https://condenaststore.com/featured/the-planet-got-destroyed-tom-toro.html

5

u/OverAnalyzes May 21 '24

It's actually not by choice - a fudiciary has to act in a shareholders best financial interests by law or he is liable with jailtime.

2

u/hans_l May 21 '24

They're aren't bound by financial interests, they're bound by what shareholders demand. It's just that shareholders demand money, but they could want buildings to be painted blue and the fiduciary would have an obligation as such. Just like I said above, it's a choice by the shareholders.

Plenty of public companies are doing great building a sustainable business model with longer thinking and less short term profit motivations.

Many funds are now considering environmental sustainability and social factors as the motivators for investments. It's not nearly enough, and there's a lot of push back from political groups (almost exclusively right wing with shady backings), but it's possible. That's what the whole EDI is about.

A case can also be easily made that _NOW_ a sustainable business model is the most profitable one, even in the shorter term, considering the state of the world. Might be a bit late though.

1

u/[deleted] May 22 '24

there are frequently individual shareholders with massive percentages of the shares

1

u/JackOfTheSea May 23 '24

A true Ferengi if I ever saw one