Then pushing the line that having children is immoral would be a deeply flawed way of going about it, as if you were successful you would create a future in which humanity was populated solely from families without morality and humanity will go to hell in a handcart in short order. Besides which the...

It is a tangent of your own creation, so it would have been a tad unusual for you to refuse to engage... But anyway... I can understand why an individual might decide having children is not for them, from both an individualistic point of view and evolutionary point of view. Society doesn't need ever...

It is a fundamental truth driven by the most basic human instinct (the most basic instinct of all life, in fact). Without continuation there is nothing.

A more interesting question would be how you've apparently managed to lose this instinct

A newspaper regular?

I dare say definitions of productivity will not massively alter. In terms of environmental change, we will see if and when it happens. This summer's heatwave in the USA was estimated to have been 2 degrees hotter than it would have been without climate change. I think it's fair to say that in a wor...

Out of curiosity, what is the problem of the earth being uninhabitable if there's no one around to inhabit it? Mars has been uninhabitable since records began and it hasn't inconvenienced anyone. The problem is the needless suffering and death that will happen on the way. Nobody was living on Mars ...

A work of Asian fiction?

Has it been a hell of an 11 months? Aside from a few unusual news stories it has been an pretty normal year. Indeed, news articles aside the strangest thing I've actually witnessed has been Australia's performance at the rugby. I dare say definitions of productivity will not massively alter. In term...

That should read "inevitably rebel against you and become productive centre right members of society "

Poor phone is on its last legs

At this point it's hugely immoral to have children, knowing the suffering they will endure as ecosystems collapse and vast swathes of earth become uninhabitable. By far and away your most idiotic comment of the year. You should have children, Jamie. They would benefit a fair amount from your fundam...

It's quite a popular position in academic circles and has been for some time. My business studies teacher back in my school days (good God... how the hell is that over two decades ago?!?) was a firm believer that continued economic growth would inevitably lead to disaster, and he was by no means unu...

My God... You mean they not only have the ability to make their own posts, but are also to analyse previous human posts to accurately identify the most well thought out and insightful comments, before editing them for their own ends? I feel violated... I demand compensation for this outrage and will...

A few noteworthy updates from the weekend The US has avoided a government shutdown for the next month or so with an agreement that sees a halt to additional funding of Ukraine. This is quite symbolic, as it both underlines Republican skepticism of the whole project, and also shows that it's the issu...

Famous for sporting achievement?

Born before the 1800s?

Crazy, isn't it? The politics are was created in order to kill off lively forum debate and clear the way for a focus on Diplomacy discussion. Unfortunately whilst killing off the interesting parts of the forum was largely successful, people overestimated how much there is to say about Diplomacy so t...

Oh, I agree completely that an agreed set of effective international rules would be preferable, but I don't see it happening. Even in the EU, which in international terms is a group of relatively like minded nations, getting an agreed framework typically results in countless loopholes and quirks to ...

As far as international agreements go, I suspect it would be easier than you imagine. If the US and China were to agree on a plan it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks. China could even act alone if it felt suitably threatened

I disagree with these tactics, fyi, i think we need more technology and confidence in ourselves to build a climate solution which blocks sunlight in a controlled fashion (ie one we can turn on and off easily and cheaply). But we also need an international agreement on how to go about this. The alte...

If you look at recent historic events commonly described as a crisis, such as the Covid pandemic, the 2008 financial crisis, the Syrian civil war, the Haiti earthquake, the Indian Ocean tsunami, then it wouldn't be out of place to consider climate change an issue of comparable magnitude. It is quite...