I Fear For the US of A

[earthfriendly]

Since we are on the topic of mother nature. Enjoy your time on this earth. While it last .

http://tinyurl.com/ovrptju

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/ ... ly-big-one

On the the face of it, earthquakes seem to present us with problems of space: the way we live along fault lines, in brick buildings, in homes made valuable by their proximity to the sea. But, covertly, they also present us with problems of time. The earth is 4.5 billion years old, but we are a young species, relatively speaking, with an average individual allotment of three score years and ten. The brevity of our lives breeds a kind of temporal parochialism—an ignorance of or an indifference to those planetary gears which turn more slowly than our own.

This problem is bidirectional. The Cascadia subduction zone remained hidden from us for so long because we could not see deep enough into the past. It poses a danger to us today because we have not thought deeply enough about the future. That is no longer a problem of information; we now understand very well what the Cascadia fault line will someday do.

[earthfriendly]

As for the topic of America, I have this to offer to my forum friends here .


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/opini ... style.html

But while universal health care, higher minimum wages, aid to education, and so on would do a lot to help Americans in trouble, I’m not sure whether they’re enough to cure existential despair.

[JR8]

I find it interesting that Krugman can discuss demographic changes re: well-being/longevity and still boil it down primarily to politics.

Long work-hours -> diet, especially fast-food/junk, rising base-line expectations for material goods, it seems don't figure at all through his politicised prism.

[mayrolllate]

Questioning the credibility of some people years ago on the same topic doesn't change the data now, people aren't always right or wrong but it's hard to dispute facts, if we can establish them. In any case, I think our grandchildren may have the option of living on Mars, which would be one solution.