Nearly half of US children are breathing dangerous levels of air pollution, report warns
Posted by Portalrules123@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 53 comments
Archeolops@reddit
save the children by not having any
toastedzergling@reddit
I never understood this mindset. Are you just going to let the people who are irresponsible and have children without thinking about it rule the future? Is your end goal to have humanity just stop breeding entirely? I really wish collapse folks would not embrace such fatalism. It's so weird and off-putting.
blacked_out_blur@reddit
buddy, we’re already living in idiocracy. all you’re doing is making another person suffer by squeezing them out into this hellscape to try and fix issues we didn’t bother to prevent, that’s morally fucked.
toastedzergling@reddit
I agree our current way of life is hopeless but I suppose even if 99.99% of humanity dies out that's still 800,000 survivors.
I get it if you don't want to be one, nor live through the transition. Things are going to get much worse soon, but will there be zero happiness at all? Will life no longer be worth living? Maybe. But it's not a guarantee. Children born into the new normal might have a different perspective and be able to find a purpose for living. I can't fault anyone for wanting to take that shot, and to give their current life purpose and an inkling of hope, but I understand you don't have that perspective and have succumbed completely to apathy and hedonism.
blacked_out_blur@reddit
This is such an interesting misfabrication of my argument.
I’m not saying nobody will ever be happy again or life isn’t worth living. I’m saying that the potential happiness that person MIGHT have isn’t comparable on a value scale to the INEVITABLE suffering they will experience. To be frank, I don’t think it matters what era this is in, there’s simply no reason to make new people that has to do with the new person’s wants or needs. In fact, I would argue that by creating new people, you are DIRECTLY culpable for all of the negative events that happen in their life. If you can live with that, cool, but I personally think that’s a piggishly selfish desire.
toastedzergling@reddit
For the right why people can endure any how. While climate change will certainly make life much harder, it is not inevitable that their suffering will be so bad that they will have a life not worth living.
BuddhistNamedMarx@reddit
The documentary "The Death of Recess" and the book "The Anxious Generation" might give you an idea on how the kids are absolutely not alright
20 yrs from now will be chaos. James E Hansen wrote a book called "Storms of my Grandchildren" that will break your heart
schwing710@reddit
Why the hell should I care about future civilizations? Look around you. Everything is completely fucked and getting worse by the day. Bringing a child into this hellscape is pure negligence bordering on cruel and unusual punishment. If you want to bring a child into the Mad Max dystopia, be my guest.
Archeolops@reddit
I’ll never understand the mindset of throwing people into the fire just to see or because they might have a different perspective? lol that’s fucked especially when I know for the fact they’re going to experience hunger before they even know what it is. I know for a fact they’re going to have to pay their way each day of their life for decades. And I know for a fact that I love my children more than to have them figure out wtf is next on this stupid rock.
haram_halal@reddit
i had a colleague who died from kung cancer because she was sitting beside rhe fucking printer for years and those apparently produce enough chemical exhaust (most ozone in her case) to kill a himan. Her cancer was seriously diagnosed as environmentally induced, whichbis pretty rare. The Printers are in a different, ventilated room now.
Tumbleweed829@reddit
Wow that's terrible! Was it a resin printer or a regular printer?
haram_halal@reddit
regular xerox for rent.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Their own parents dgaf, why should I?
miklayn@reddit
What the hell is this meant to accomplish?
Do you feel better for not caring about other people to the extent that you totally dismiss them? How do you suppose that exposure to air pollution - created by industry, by cars, by the totality of our systems of economic "production" - is entirely the fault of individual parents?
JagBak73@reddit
Don't waste your breath trying to argue or reason with militant anti-natalists. It's not worth it.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
You think we are extreme but we are right. It's just the majority of people will keep breeding and you and the majority of people will never get it or understand.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Not my problem, I didn’t bring those kids into the world and then keep voting for “leaders” that screw their kids over
miklayn@reddit
Do you imagine that you don't also breathe that same air? That you are free from its damaging effects?
Your position is nonsense. Refusing to care about others is juvenile and self-destructive.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Idc!! They selfishly and cruelly chose to have them and now they have to suffer the consequences. Not me.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
This. If you are stupid enough to bring a kid out into a world circling the drain, don’t expect me to sacrifice what little joys I still have for them.
Undeity@reddit
Those kids are the next generation. That's not just a platitude, they quite literally define the future in a way that most certainly impacts you.
What do you think this kind of mindset teaches them? When nobody will so much as stand up for them.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
This life is so short and temporary and none of this matters in the end. None of it.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Get their parents to care about their futures first
Undeity@reddit
Let me put it another way. The world is shitty, but putting it all on other people to fix just because it shouldn't have to be your responsibility in the first place... is exactly how it gets so bad.
There is such a thing as collective responsibility to society.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Buddy this world is going to hell, we missed our chance to fix things decades ago, I ain’t giving up the few things that keeps me sane like my global travels for anyones kid
Undeity@reddit
And so things get even worse.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Not my problem, tell the parents who have their heads in the sand to sacrifice
Undeity@reddit
You're on a collapse subreddit, and you still don't seem to get that those few things you appreciate are also at risk. This is in your own self interest, you're just too short-sighted and numb to realize yet.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
How can anyone not be numb to all of this shit?!! How? Nothing is shocking or surprising! And I know that. That's why I wanna enjoy it while I can.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
Oh I know they’re at risk, that’s why Ive stopped prepping for retirement and have accelerated my travel plans, going to Mongolia in a few weeks, and African Safari and an amazon cruise next year
Undeity@reddit
Well, at least it's a sort of hedonistic defeatism. I can sort of respect that. As long as you hate yourself for it.
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
I’ll be sure to hate myself when Im glamping a Mongolian national park
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Haha yes! Love it!
Undeity@reddit
Whatever helps you escape that emptiness you take out on the people around you.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Hell yes! That sounds amazing!
miklayn@reddit
Blatantly admitting such selfishness and wanton apathy is not a flex.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
It is the most selfish thing in the world to have a child. I will never and am never going to be a child by not having a child.
jsc1429@reddit
How ironic that you have the same mentality that got us in this situation
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Thank you for getting it!
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Who gives a shit. There parents should stand up for them and every parent on the fucking planet! It should be parents on the fucking front lines!
miklayn@reddit
I am on the front lines.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Parents deserve all the consequences of their actions for choosing to have kids.
summercookiess@reddit
What a vile comment
DoubtSubstantial5440@reddit
You brought kids into a world destined for bad shit in the very near future? Your problem, I certainly won’t give up my global travels for anyones kid
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Yes!
summercookiess@reddit
I don't have kids nor do I plan to have any, but saying people deserve all the consequences for choosing to have kids is still vile.
BellaRyder2505@reddit
Yes!
jsc1429@reddit
How ironic you to have the same mentality of those who put us in this situation
Viridian_Crane@reddit
The US doesn't science anymore, we're full unga bunga now. That's why The Guardian wrote this article.
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/Portalrules123:
SS: Related to pollution and healthcare and collapse as heavy exposure to air pollution for American children is likely to lead to pulmonary health issues later in life which will put additional stress on an already stressed (and in some cases totally collapsing) healthcare system. The latest annual report by the American Lung Association assessed the situation based on three metrics: levels of ground-level ozone as well as both year-round and short-term spikes in particle pollution. Almost half of US children (and likely many non-child residents as well) lived in areas that failed at least one of these three metrics for pollution. Around 10% of children lived in areas that failed all three metrics, indicating very high levels of air pollution. Expect lung cancer and other pulmonary issues caused by this trend to continue being a leading cause of shortened lives and healthcare stress into the future.
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1ssl1xc/nearly_half_of_us_children_are_breathing/ohmkw55/
Dustmopper@reddit
Screw those kids (official White House policy)
Have you even considered the needs of the shareholders? Children, don’t be so selfish.
XI_Vanquish_IX@reddit
It’s called social media. They’re breathing in a lot of dangerous toxins from that too.
Portalrules123@reddit (OP)
SS: Related to pollution and healthcare and collapse as heavy exposure to air pollution for American children is likely to lead to pulmonary health issues later in life which will put additional stress on an already stressed (and in some cases totally collapsing) healthcare system. The latest annual report by the American Lung Association assessed the situation based on three metrics: levels of ground-level ozone as well as both year-round and short-term spikes in particle pollution. Almost half of US children (and likely many non-child residents as well) lived in areas that failed at least one of these three metrics for pollution. Around 10% of children lived in areas that failed all three metrics, indicating very high levels of air pollution. Expect lung cancer and other pulmonary issues caused by this trend to continue being a leading cause of shortened lives and healthcare stress into the future.