Quote (ofthevoid @ Aug 22 2019 04:03pm)
Smart people make the wrong decisions all the time. Just because Jefferson was wrong or small-minded as I framed it with this decision, doesn't mean he wasn't brilliant on most other fronts.
Mining is not the only resource Greenland offers. There are fisheries, there are reserves of freshwater, there is a slowly growing habitable environment as global warming happens, potential tourism, the potential for infrastructure like ports & runways that can be beneficial for trade & commerce etc. This is just shit i know off the top of my head without doing some serious research.
we can expand the list of positive economic gains from buying Greenland 10 miles wide, we still have the issue of Greenlanders not wanting those positives to come to fruition. Greenlanders don't want their land stripmined, they don't want it developed for tourist resorts, they don't want the waters heavily fished, they don't want the land cultivated for farming, they don't want an airport put in to act as a high traffic hangover between America and Europe, etc. I simply chose mining because its the item easiest expanded on without need for outside investment, companies prospect and then mine on their own dime. Tourism and the travel industry require lots of outside investment and even the fishing industry would need the current infrastructure bolstered.
The situation is simple to me, ever seen the movie Enough with Jlo? Her (soon to be physically abusive) husband is driving with her and she sees a house and says "i like that one it's beautiful", just a passing comment. He pulls over, knocks on the door, tells the man he wants to buy his house that comes to the door. the man says no, so he bullies him and offers way over market value to finally get the man to say yes. That's what this is, in order to make it work we need to bully them (not really an option) and/or offer them way too much to get it. At which point the economic gains evaporate.
IF we could get it at market value from a seller who's motivated to sell, sure. If not, it's just a bad purchase. And even if they did sell we'd be plagued with scandals as they bemoan the environmental impact while still cashing our checks. The LA purchase was the greatest real estate purchase of all time, and incredible steal. This is more akin to buying a business in modern day which can go south in many ways or besmirch your reputation even if you still make money.
Quote (CarsV @ Aug 23 2019 04:53am)
What's interesting is that the short-faced bear, American lion, and woolly mammoths seemed have gone extinct around the same exact time. 11,000 years ago for the short-faced and American lion and there is fossil evidence that woolly mammoths endured in pockets in Siberia for as long as the earliest human civilizations bloomed, such as the ancient Egyptians and early Mesopotamian civilizations. I haven't read much into it, but it's an interesting observation and makes one wonder what specifically occurred in such a relatively short period of time. Obviously the ice age ended, but what were the causes? Did humans play a factor? Who knows. Still, pretty interesting to think about that when ancient Egyptians were learning to build their first pyramids, animals that we can only dream about in books and in museums as some long gone chapter of time were still roaming the Earth.
It wasn't THAT long ago these animals existed. That's the funny thing about time. One thousand years is both a long time and yet it's not. In one thousands years, not a lot can change and yet a lot can drastically change. Unfortunately things like polar bears might join them soon. At least future generations of humans won't have to rely solely on imagination and will have photos and video of what they were like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mgnf6t9VEc
Beautiful photography at 0:57.
my one bit of solace in all of this is that polar bears and many other animals will still exist in captivity and reserves, so even if their wild population is devastated or extinct they can in theory be reintroduced some day if the habitat can be made habitable again. Like the difference between wolves in Yellowstone and Tasmanian tigers just disappearing. If we had Tasmanian tiger populations to reintroduce that could be done right now.