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  • yeeeeman - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Hopefully all these cancelations will mean fewer air travels, less polution and a realisation of the fact that we have to respect our planet.
  • PeachNCream - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Maybe we will figure out that most of these pointlessly large show and tell for adults events are an expensive waste of time and just spare everyone the economic and environmental costs in the future.
  • AshlayW - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Let's also cancel all holidays/vacations, and container ships. Because container ships are one of the biggest pollutants. I also hope you don't drive, or eat meat. Or dairy. Only veggies grown in your back garden.

    Caring for the enviroment is important, but being a hypocrit on an online comment section isn't.
  • yeeeeman - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Dairy is brought into stores from max 20km away in my area. Same for veggies. Same for meat. You are the hypocrit since you believe there is only one solution to solve our needs, that is bringing food from the other end of the world by ship and plane.
  • mode_13h - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Peach's skepticism about the benefit of these tradeshows is legit. This will be an interesting social experiment.

    However, I think a lot of deals and introductions would only happen by being there, in person. There's something about happenstance introductions and being in a room or at a table with someone that you wouldn't otherwise have occasion to meet or talk to.

    With regard for climate concerns, don't let "perfect" be the enemy of "better". Emissions reductions will happen through a continual sequence of incremental improvements. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing or (quite) overnight.

    Anyway, I expect the short-term impact of reduced travel to be (slightly) higher global temperatures, as happened in the grounding of US air traffic, post-9/11. It turns out that the condensation from airplane exhaust reflects enough sunlight to have a statistically significant, short-term impact on temperatures.
  • yetanotherhuman - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link

    "Peach's skepticism about the benefit of these tradeshows is legit."
    It's pretty much just people who can't be bothered to do any actual work jerking each other off
  • mode_13h - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link

    > yetanotherasshole

    Fixed that for you.
  • Spunjji - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link

    'With regard for climate concerns, don't let "perfect" be the enemy of "better"'

    Climate denialists want to let *everything* be the enemy of better. "Perfect" is just the latest shift of the goalposts, now that "it's not happening" is only popular with the flat Earth crowd.
  • Spunjji - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link

    Commenter 1: "Hopefully this will raise awareness on doing fewer damaging things."
    Commenter 2: "Yes, cutting down on unnecessary stuff now will help later."
    Commenter 3: "iF yOu DoN't Do EvErYtHiNg PoSsIbLe YoU'rE a HyPoCrItE sHuT uP"

    "Ashlay" is literally this fucking guy:
    https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/
  • PeachNCream - Monday, March 2, 2020 - link

    Ashlay's responses to my comments are more about seeking out a way or means to launch a personal attack due to feelings that I probably hurt at some point in the past. Taken in that light, the content of Ashlay's responses to my posts are not really relevant except as a means for him/her to feel better through retaliation. I wouldn't suggest putting much effort into picking apart specifics given the context. I could say the sky is blue and there would be a counter argument from Ashlay with thin justification about how that makes me a horrible person.
  • kulareddy - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    On the flip side of your argument there will be thousands of furloughed workers with no wages and families to feed. And by the planet doesn't give a damn about us, by polluting, we causing harm to ourselves not the planet. It (planet) was there before us and will be here after.
  • mode_13h - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Planet is not literally referring to the minerals and water on which we stand, but its life-sustaining capacity and ecosystems. You're not helping anything by being so obtuse.

    As for the people living on it, the potential climate change has for causing poverty, starvation, and other forms of human misery (wars, etc.) is far beyond the scale of economic impacts potentially caused by this viral outbreak & the corresponding societal reactions to it.
  • Threska - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Must be referring to this. Not a good way to solve a problem.

    https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coronavirus-h...
  • mode_13h - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    It's not even a solution, since it's fundamentally short-term.

    A more deadly virus would present a potential long-term solution, but no one can seriously endorse this option (not unless you're a supervillain, anyway). And we need to learn to control greenhouse emissions anyway, or else we'll be in an even worse spot when the population inevitably bounces back.
  • TristanSDX - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    people soon discover, they do not need games at all
  • Threska - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    We will if we're going to be spending a lot of time at home.

    https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/...
  • mode_13h - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Yeah, get your gaming PC upgrades, ASAP.

    Forget about the upcoming consoles, as their launches could be delayed (and might come too late, anyhow).
  • Threska - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    Had this conversation elsewhere.* As pandemics become more common we'll see all forms of remote (where applicable) from the telecommuting that's already being used, to VR conventions, and even teleconferencing by groups and businesses. Not to mention a boost in automation since machines don't get sick.

    *They argued face-time, and perks of going places were more important. Pandemics might make that untenable though. After all staying alive is the most important thing.
  • mode_13h - Saturday, February 29, 2020 - link

    We'll see. I'm not convinced such pandemics will suddenly become the norm. Also, the more this kind of thing happens, the more quickly and effectively society will learn to respond.

    I doubt this is the end of trade shows, rock concerts, or cruise ships. Just as the 1918 flu pandemic didn't end urban living, this will come & go, leaving few traces on the modern lifestyle.

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