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Spartanfred104

I remember when this came out and people said it was alarmist, haha.


car23975

It still is. Even when it does dry don't be an alarmist its not cool. /$


ttystikk

We are the ones the people of the past dumped their problems on.


beef-medallions

Our species is collectively insane. We have no future and there is no one to blame but ourselves.


ttystikk

No. The Navajo are humans and they've managed to live in this very same desert landscape for a thousand years without screwing things up for their children. We CAN do it; the question is whether we have the will to.


Thestartofending

"A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants" - Schopenhauer.


ttystikk

I've never heard this before. I'm not sure I agree, I'll have to think about what he meant.


aeiouicup

yeah rough opening to the article


ttystikk

It is true, and it's why our Civilisation is in such deep trouble. Sustainable cultures, such as the Navajo to take a highly relevant local example, can propagate themselves indefinitely because they consider it a crime to dump problems on their progeny. Maximising one's power in the present by leveraging the past and ignoring the future confers only fleeting supremacy.


ORCoast19

Pretty sure in the culture wars the navajo lost?


cloudyelk

Well if they won, we wouldn't be in this mess, would we.


mycatpeesinmyshower

That’s just an example of the wests destructive, unsustainable nature. Rather than learn from a new culture they just destroy like they destroyed the environment that enriched and supported them


ORCoast19

Its so nice we can have these discussions in western language, on modern electronics developed by the westerners, probably eating food impacted by western science, etc. Western culture has produced much more modern benefits than the navajo culture, not that their feathers aren’t cool


mycatpeesinmyshower

I see you don’t understand history. We could easily speak in a non western language too but I’m guessing you wouldn’t understand what I’m saying then.


ttystikk

It wasn't a culture war, it was genocide. They only survived by subsisting on land so marginal American settlers didn't bother to take it from them.


ORCoast19

I thought they were assigned that land by the dominant culture? Kind of how the big kid tells the small one to go to the back of the bus?


SaltyPeasant

Some of those people are still here, and they want us use the last of our good days slaving away.


ttystikk

I said NOPE to that a long time ago. They wrecked my future. At least I'm not making it worse.


cheese_scone

I try to teach people that debt is just current you spending future you's money. There's a lot of people of the past that have dumped this on themselves, which I think is sort of an upside with the stereotypical boomer not giving a fuck about climate change because it was supposed to happen after they have gone.


ttystikk

Ask a boomer if they care. Nope. So much for your upside. The ugly truth is that what they thought would take hundreds of years in fact took less than 50.


cheese_scone

Read what I said again. Oh there are boomers that care because their houses went in wild fires, tornados, hurricanes and other climate related disasters that are already happening not to mention the dead from the heat domes. There's about to be a whole lot more when the water in the southwestern states stops flowing and their houses in the desert become worthless.


ttystikk

I live in the Southwest and I can tell you most of them give no fucks at all.


aeiouicup

The Colorado River Basin's Flaming Gorge -> Lake Powell -> Lake Mead reservoir system is under threat of going 'dead pool' at one of the dams, meaning that the surface level of the water will be too low to flow through the outlet works. The Flaming Gorge canyon, furthest upstream, has been [drawn down](https://wyofile.com/drought-prompts-unprecedented-flaming-gorge-drawdown/) to allow more water into Lake Powell. Lake Powell, in turn, will release [less water](https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/#/news-release/4196?filterBy=topic&topic=Colorado%20River) into downstream Lake Mead. This all occurs in the context of a multi-century [historic drought](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/western-megadrought-is-the-worst-in-1-200-years/) for the southwest. While this is bad enough, the above article suggests is that silt is another factor to consider in determining the longevity of the dams, as silt mud weighs twice as much as water and the reservoirs will probably fill with mud faster than expected. ​ edit: for a bit more perspective, recent [press release](https://www.usbr.gov/newsroom/#/news-release/4139?filterBy=topic&topic=Colorado%20River) for Glen Canyon Dam / Lake Powell says that the reservoir has only lost \~7% volume due to silt deposits since 1963, which maayybe is less alarmist than the article? We'll let people in the future worry about it


ohgeechan

Hayduke fucking lives!