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Reducing poverty can actually lower energy demand, finds research:
[...] We found that households that do have access to clean fuels, safe water, basic education and adequate food—that is, those not in extreme poverty—can use as little as half the energy of the national average in their country.
This is important, as it goes directly against the argument that more resources and energy will be needed for people in the global south to escape extreme poverty. The biggest factor is the switch from traditional cooking fuels, like firewood or charcoal, to more efficient (and less polluting) electricity and gas.
In Zambia, Nepal and Vietnam, modern energy resources are extremely unfairly distributed—more so than income, general spending, or even spending on leisure. As a consequence, poorer households use more dirty energy than richer households, with ensuing health and gender impacts. Cooking with inefficient fuels consumes a lot of energy, and even more when water needs to be boiled before drinking.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday June 06 2021, @06:15PM (14 children)
Exactly...which means the solution is to skip right from "poor agrarianism" to "we've got solar panels, turbines, and some impressively efficient LED lighting" and forget the entire polluting coal phase. The problem is making sure that the same thing that sometimes happens with big money injections--crashing the local economy--doesn't happen with technology transfers.
That being said, since medium-scale projects (a village worth of solar panels or a small onshore wind farm) are less liquid than cash they're also less volatile and, if properly constructed, provide benefits all out of proportion to the simple amount of power they generate. Investing in education and basic sanitation is another big one.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 06 2021, @10:11PM (13 children)
But how do we make some money off of it? Gotta get khallow on board, dude needs a little inspiration!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday June 06 2021, @10:52PM (12 children)
Make him live in the conditions of the people he looks down so badly on. What he *needs* is a lesson in humanity.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Sunday June 06 2021, @11:36PM (11 children)
Torture as an instrument of persuasion? Well, maybe you need to suffer a little more to see reason, right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @06:11AM (4 children)
You could take advantage of your fabulous ideas for what other people should do. Runaway with it ;)
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Monday June 07 2021, @12:32PM (3 children)
I bet my ideas here are more fabulous than Azuma's! I don't view suffering as the avenue to learning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @11:04PM
lol @ shallow
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 10 2021, @11:36PM (1 child)
Once again, you deliberately fail to understand me: suffering *can* be *one of the avenues* to learning. In most cases it's not necessary.
In the case of anyone with the kind of sociopathic attitude you have? It's very likely the only avenue. Your kind only learns why something is a problem after experiencing it.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Saturday June 12 2021, @12:51AM
The other avenue is just asserting things.
Case in point.
I think your post demonstrates the ongoing disconnect from reality you and others have. Build up an elaborate, delusional narrative and fantasize about what's going to happen to people who won't buy into your narrative. All I can say is that I have suffered in the past and I will suffer in the future, but none of that suffering will teach me your falsehoods. Your narrative is irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 07 2021, @04:56PM (5 children)
Wow, being a lower class person in our society is "torture."
You just admitted something I don't think you intended!
The question is: Is it moral to allow the less fortunate than you to be "tortured?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 07 2021, @11:52PM (1 child)
Heh, good catch, but libertarians believe the less fortunate should bootstrap their way up and the suffering is the driver. Sociopathy as political party. Of course the REAL libertarians have compassion and understand the need for government interventions, but they believe we should minimize the necessity of government. So far khallow is just cosplaying a libertarian, more like an atheist republican.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 08 2021, @03:50AM
No, simply that the allegedly "less fortunate" should take care of their own wants and needs as they see them - rather than some poorly informed government bureaucracy deciding what our wants and needs are (or often just deciding to benefit themselves), and then taking actions that often are irrelevant or even harmful. It's not about suffering, it's about people taking care of themselves responsibly without require government intervention.
Indeed, but when will anyone in this thread mention such a need? Something like national security or emergency services are such needs. A fantasy [soylentnews.org] about 21st Century infrastructure materializing by magic is not such a need. Forcing people to live in the conditions of the poorest on the planet (which incident is a common application of government) is not such a need.
Perhaps instead of constructing straw men arguments, you could provide a REAL argument?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 08 2021, @02:51AM (2 children)
Strangely enough, I've been a lower class person before in our society and it wasn't torture. Maybe the narrative needs some work?
I checked that box and picked up said lesson in humanity. But this would-be teacher is still pushing the same, old lesson plan. It's time to move on.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 10 2021, @11:38PM (1 child)
You very clearly did not learn it, else you wouldn't be saying well over 90% of the shit you do about politics and the economy. You never learned, and the fact that you admitted you were in a position to learn but didn't says all anyone needs to know about you. Ignorance I can (usually) forgive; willful stupidity is another matter entirely.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 12 2021, @12:53AM
Last I checked, we agreed (when you actually would say something concrete rather than spin fantasies) on a lot more than 10% of my shit.