[HN Gopher] David Attenborough at 99: 'I will not see how the st...
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       David Attenborough at 99: 'I will not see how the story ends'
        
       Author : herbertl
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2025-06-15 21:21 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thetimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thetimes.com)
        
       | bayarearefugee wrote:
       | I think that not seeing how the story ends will be a blessing in
       | disguise.
       | 
       | (I do not share his optimism that we fix this, the forces of Line
       | Must Go Up are going to win... at least until we all rapidly
       | lose)
        
         | abbadadda wrote:
         | "No one cares about the bomb that didn't go off." - Tenet
         | 
         | Preventing "bombs" from going off is not rewarded. And indeed
         | the Line Must Go Up Crowd is reliant upon someone else fixing
         | the problem while they get theirs. But when the majority think
         | that way we're f**ed.
        
           | antithesizer wrote:
           | The bombs not dropped here today remain available to be
           | dropped elsewhere tomorrow, so perhaps we shouldn't pat
           | ourselves on the back just yet.
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | I agree. I reflect on this from time to time when I consider
         | that my mom, having died a few years back, would not be
         | enjoying much of anything going on in the world right now.
         | (Further, that she was born at the close of WWII in the U.S.,
         | she may have been lucky enough to have lived in the best part
         | of recent history here.)
        
         | tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
         | My theory: The forces of Line Must Go Up are going to keep
         | winning. Mitigating the impact of climate change will be part
         | of Line Goes Up. Whether it will be cheaper or more expensive
         | than avoiding it in the first place will remain to be seen (but
         | won't really matter in the end), but we will be facing whatever
         | impacts we will be facing, and we will face them, and we will
         | deal with them.
         | 
         | If you have any doubt, look at how the Netherlands dealt with
         | storm surge.
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | https://archive.md/CFCFn
        
       | malux85 wrote:
       | Nobody sees how the story ends
        
         | teruakohatu wrote:
         | I can understand there is an inherit sadness in not knowing the
         | outcome of one's life's work, but as you say none of use ever
         | see how it ends. In terms of our natural environment humankind
         | has only ever observed in person, let alone recorded, what
         | amounts to the blink of an eye.
        
         | tclancy wrote:
         | The Sundays beg to differ.
        
           | esseph wrote:
           | Are you alluding to some religious thing?
           | 
           | Fear of oblivion and/or the unknown is fucking scary.
        
             | JKCalhoun wrote:
             | Certainly this: https://youtu.be/FHsip5xOenQ
        
           | zakki wrote:
           | So is the Fridays ;)
        
             | rzzzt wrote:
             | Avril Lavigne as well.
        
         | create-username wrote:
         | Our generations of the last 10,000 years are seeing how the
         | story decays.
         | 
         | When the food supply was abundant, families would jog every day
         | doing BBQ every night hunting down mammoths
         | 
         | We have become red in tooth and claw. At the summit of
         | civilisation, we are alienated with our screens, licking frozen
         | TV dinners in our shared flat while we work hard to support our
         | landlords
        
         | antithesizer wrote:
         | Depends which story. Every death is the end of somebody's
         | world.
        
       | Silhouette wrote:
       | None of us see the end of the story but I do fear that the story
       | could change when we inevitably lose a passionate advocate in Sir
       | David whose credibility on this issue has been unchallengeable.
       | 
       | I take some comfort from the younger generations who are now
       | growing up with a much greater awareness of the natural
       | environment and the damage we humans can do to it and a much
       | lower tolerance for political sophistry and capitalist all-about-
       | the-money "ethics". With the selfishness of politics in much of
       | the world today I think things will probably get worse before
       | they get better. I still hope that we won't cross any points of
       | no return as those younger people gain influence and those of
       | older generations who are not always as enlightened and concerned
       | as Sir David also leave us.
       | 
       | I think those younger generations will have better chances if
       | there is a highly visible advocate for protecting the natural
       | world for ordinary people to coalesce around. I don't know who
       | the next David Attenborough could be. Perhaps one of his final
       | gifts to humanity can be helping to find and establish the
       | profile(s) of natural successor(s) who can carry on his work.
        
       | hammock wrote:
       | I'm confused. We are beyond the point of no return when it comes
       | to global warming. Hasnt he already seen how the story ends?
        
         | placatedmayhem wrote:
         | The narrative climax to the human story around climate change
         | has yet to happen. Assuming we continue on the current
         | trajectory, expect riots and wars over food and clean water,
         | possibly more.
        
       | hermitcrab wrote:
       | I watched David Attenborough's recent film 'Ocean' on a big
       | screen. The footage of bottom trawling was really shocking. I
       | don't understand how that has been allowed to continue in UK
       | coastal waters, let alone to be subsidised in marine protected
       | areas. Madness. It's like napalming a forest to get a few deer.
       | Thankfully things may be changing:
       | 
       | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-proposes-to-ex...
       | 
       | Don't know how much of that was due to the film.
        
         | Velorivox wrote:
         | The relevant excerpt. [0]
         | 
         | [0] https://youtu.be/IzG9AwlypaY?feature=shared
        
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