that's not what that means. words mean things. they mean the things that they mean instead of the things that they don't meanhttps://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1090091453341155328 …
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Vessel Of Spirit Retweeted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
half a degree of (eventual) warming relative to present isn't the end of the world. calling it that isn't reasonable or okayhttps://twitter.com/AOC/status/1087722312168812551 …
Vessel Of Spirit added,
Alexandria Ocasio-CortezVerified account @AOCFor some reason GOP seems to think this is a gaffe, but it’s actually a generational difference. Young people understand that climate change is an existential threat: 3,000 Americans died in Hurricane María. The UN says we’ve got 12 years left to fix it: https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report … https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1087550417653940224 …4 replies 1 retweet 5 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @VesselOfSpirit
Yes, it's overhyped as a threat, but you don't get to unilaterally decide that the definition of "existential" we use is the only one. They are using the word reasonably - whole cities will cease to exist due to warming. (Even if AI kills us all first. Which is plausible.)
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Replying to @davidmanheim
sure, but if it's not a threat to our existence then it's not an existential threat
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Replying to @VesselOfSpirit
"our"? Reference classes matter. Sea level rise is plausibly a threat that could make NYC stop existing. AI is plausibly a threat that could make humanity stop existing. It's still not existential - it won't cause false vacuum collapse, so existence continues.
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Replying to @davidmanheim
an existential threat isn't necessarily a threat to existence in general, but it's a threat to the existence of something defined by context, in this case i guess human civilization or the usa
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Replying to @VesselOfSpirit @davidmanheim
how many meters of sea level rise does it take to make nyc stop existing?
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Replying to @VesselOfSpirit @davidmanheim
note that e.g. the netherlands is already half below sea level and we can expect future adaptation technology to improve
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the scarier estimates for sea level rise that i've seen turn out to take millennia if you look at the fine print. even if it's a century people can move away
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