Most likely some other country (or countries) would simply fulfill the same role of projecting their military and economic power onto the rest of the world to maintain their hegemony. We see this in limited ways already with many other countries, though with a few exceptions, they’re careful in how much they conflict with US interests. One of these, likely China, would move into that role and while the details would be different in some ways, many of the overall dynamics would be similar.
Unfortunately, Gaza isn’t the only major humanitarian crisis we’re dealing with, and democrats are substantially better on most of the other ones.
Of course, I fully support (and have participated in) the efforts them to pressure them to do the right thing on that topic. Pressure which would be unlikely to have much effect on republicans.
Because they didn’t like the direction Reddit was heading I guess? But I don’t know the full answer. I’ve just noticed that Lemmy seems to skew older than I would have expected.
Maybe it’s just reflecting the demographics of the tech-savvy open source enthusiasts that might be interested in such a project? Are there young people with such interests still? And if so where are they?
I’m also old, just not as grumpy as some, so I don’t really know what the young people are up to nowadays. Most I know in person seem to be on TikTok and instagram but that’s not the tech crowd, if they’re out there somewhere.
Lemmy has a lot of grumpy old folks who fear change so it just comes with the territory.
I think these look great! It’s definitely possible to have elevated cities and this was a common solution for cities in flood-prone areas prior to modern flood-control infrastructure like dams and levees.
I would look to real world places for inspiration. Many seaside towns reserve the first floor for parking because of possible storm surges. Obviously parking isn’t really needed in a solarpunk city, I would think about uses for this space that can either survive or be easily moved in the case of flooding. Your ideas seem fine although the marketplace would have to be thoughtfully designed to make it portable.
My city of Sacramento historically was very flood prone (and arguably still is, if the levies fail). An interesting feature of our history is that the entire existing downtown was lifted up to reduce flooding risk—this included buildings, sidewalks, streets. Everything! Kind of amazing, really. This particular strategy does leave some issues—the space under many streets is hollow and basically unused, although maybe a creative use for it exists. It also poses challenges in planting trees and building in spaces above the tunnels since they were only designed for a specific load.
Older houses in Sacramento also often have an elevated first floor with external stairs which I find charming. Historically the first floor was used for carriages but today people either park there or store other items. So a similar strategy to what you have here, except the space is more enclosed. This works well here because the city is very flat, so even during floods there is little current. Areas with hilly topography or with coastal flooding need open space on the lower floor to allow moving water to pass under without damaging the structure.
I would also look into “sponge city” concepts with bioswales, rain gardens, etc. Another possible source of inspiration is the chinampas agricultural system in Mexico. This is an extremely productive agricultural system created by alternating deeper ditches/canals with elevated areas. This allows for more ecological diversity to grow different crops. While I don’t think it’s wise to convert existing swamps to this system due to their imperiled status, swamps aren’t particularly hospitable to have in our cities, so this could be another possible strategy to deal with seasonal flooding in existing settlements.
Climate-induced flooding is going to be a major challenge in the future and I think we’ve really only begun to reckon with this new reality.
In addition to the usual corruption, it’s also worth noting that while there is broad support for climate action, voters typically don’t place this issue very highly among their list of concerns. So, people support action if you ask them but it isn’t top of mind and doesn’t seem to be a deciding factor in how people vote.
The political system isn’t completely corrupt. Our leaders are ultimately accountable to voters, but only if we wield our power intentionally and in large numbers. Right now, that’s not happening on this topic.
Bottoms up!
A political leader who actually takes climate issues seriously? What’s the catch?
They certainly do and unfortunately they don’t need the body. No one is safe.
Civil disobedience is extremely morally different from terrorism. Are you seriously equating throwing soup on a painting or breaking a glass case with blowing up buildings and murdering people? That’s ridiculous.
I’ve been dreaming about this for decades. One challenge is that cities can’t directly control upstream pollution on rivers, which is generally the most common form of accessible swimming area.
We need better governance structures for rivers and other systems where selfish actions by people can cause harm distant to where it originates.
Chinese foreign policy has been fairly cautious and covert compared to other world powers. I think this has generally been a good strategy as it has avoided major conflicts with the US and Europe in recent times.
I can’t think of any coup they’ve directly supported but they certainly have supported military movements and governments in other countries, including Vietnam, North Korea, Myanmar, and Venezuela. So they’ve been a bit less prone to overthrowing governments but they aren’t afraid to use similar tactics to keep friendly regimes in power, and help those factions expand power. So is it a coup to help the North Vietnamese conquer the South? I guess it depends on the definition of coup which can be a fraught word.
Personally I’m not sure I see any of these as coups. The closest might be Myanmar but while China has protected and supported the junta there, it’s not totally clear they actually supported the coup itself. I interpret their actions as seeking stability and wanting to minimize Western influence.