<story><title>Pollution causing more deaths than Covid, action needed, U.N. expert says</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/pollution-causing-more-deaths-than-covid-action-needed-un-expert-says-2022-02-15/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gyulai</author><text>I really don&amp;#x27;t think we should call the &amp;quot;environmental crisis&amp;quot; a &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;For example, smoking probably causes more deaths than Covid.  So, while it may be perfectly true that things like smoking and pollution are bigger public health issues than Covid, we never spoke of a &amp;quot;smoking crisis&amp;quot;, and justifiably so.&lt;p&gt;The thing that makes a crisis into a crisis is that it&amp;#x27;s highly discrete in time and there is a temporally very limited window of opportunity to take action.  This is true of Covid, but it&amp;#x27;s not true of smoking or pollution.&lt;p&gt;A politican speaking of a climate &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; is engaging in the same psychological manipulation tactic as a radio commercial telling you to &amp;quot;act now on this limited-time offer&amp;quot;, or a used-car salesman telling you that you have to buy that car right now, because this other guy definitely just called and is now on his way to the lot, and will likely buy the car you&amp;#x27;re interested in as soon as you leave the lot.</text></item><item><author>Synaesthesia</author><text>Wow 9 million a year die prematurely. The environmental crisis is manifold: we have the destruction of species and habitats, the global warming problem, and now also just trash - overuse of plastics is a huge problem, air pollution is pretty terrible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>modo_mario</author><text>&amp;gt;limited window of opportunity to take action&lt;p&gt;Things like permafrost melting and releasing more methane?</text></comment>
<story><title>Pollution causing more deaths than Covid, action needed, U.N. expert says</title><url>https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/pollution-causing-more-deaths-than-covid-action-needed-un-expert-says-2022-02-15/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gyulai</author><text>I really don&amp;#x27;t think we should call the &amp;quot;environmental crisis&amp;quot; a &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;For example, smoking probably causes more deaths than Covid.  So, while it may be perfectly true that things like smoking and pollution are bigger public health issues than Covid, we never spoke of a &amp;quot;smoking crisis&amp;quot;, and justifiably so.&lt;p&gt;The thing that makes a crisis into a crisis is that it&amp;#x27;s highly discrete in time and there is a temporally very limited window of opportunity to take action.  This is true of Covid, but it&amp;#x27;s not true of smoking or pollution.&lt;p&gt;A politican speaking of a climate &amp;quot;crisis&amp;quot; is engaging in the same psychological manipulation tactic as a radio commercial telling you to &amp;quot;act now on this limited-time offer&amp;quot;, or a used-car salesman telling you that you have to buy that car right now, because this other guy definitely just called and is now on his way to the lot, and will likely buy the car you&amp;#x27;re interested in as soon as you leave the lot.</text></item><item><author>Synaesthesia</author><text>Wow 9 million a year die prematurely. The environmental crisis is manifold: we have the destruction of species and habitats, the global warming problem, and now also just trash - overuse of plastics is a huge problem, air pollution is pretty terrible.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>palae</author><text>&amp;gt; The thing that makes a crisis into a crisis is that it&amp;#x27;s highly discrete in time and there is a temporally very limited window of opportunity to take action.&lt;p&gt;That is your definition, but not necessarily the one meant by others. From Merriam-Webster (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.merriam-webster.com&amp;#x2F;dictionary&amp;#x2F;crisis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.merriam-webster.com&amp;#x2F;dictionary&amp;#x2F;crisis&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Essential Meaning of crisis
: a difficult or dangerous situation that needs serious attention&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;[...] Definition 3b: &amp;quot;a situation that has reached a critical phase &amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F; the environmental crisis&amp;quot;</text></comment>