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Climate change apocalypse: Will videogames disappear? (amazing documentary)

Natasha Kerensky

Natasha Kerensky

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Jul 18, 2019
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Praha, CZ
This short, well-produced documentary goes into how the games industry is unsustainable and gamers are all living in fantasy where they think that the next Xbox or Playstation or Nintendo will keep being released without ever realizing that the rare earth mineral deposits are getting even rarer and that the energy costs associated with extracting them is incompatible with a society that avoids the climate change apocalypse we are facing in the coming decades. I highly recommend watching it, the author did a great job researching the numbers, the energy costs, and the science behind how our future with climate change apocalypse will look.

The documentary is in French, but you can enable the English captions - just click the CC button in the bottom-right.




How do you imagine video games to be with the challenges set by climate change? Will the industry try to remain conservative and cater more and more to the rich who can afford the expensive, polluting production processes, while the poor and middle-classes die from an overheated climate? Or will "videogames" as we know them change and adapt to the difficult circumstances we all will find ourselves in? There is no question that the games industry cannot continue the way that we "gamers" have been accustomed to think it will with the next Playstation or the next Xbox or the next PC hardware.
 
Lego Killer Moth

Lego Killer Moth

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
1,292
My man entire states and cities and countries will disappear. Humanity might disappear. Of course games are fucked.
 
MrKlaw

MrKlaw

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,038
That rare earth stuff is going to mess up smart phones and tablets which will have a bigger impact than consoles. Will watch though
 
BAW

BAW

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,939
Just create these "rare" earth materials in the lab, problem solved
 
Cuboid 64

Cuboid 64

Member
Oct 28, 2017
354
I will enjoy them while I can then and hope we figure out some sort of solution. I donate to appropriate causes (Rainforest Action Network just yesterday for one,) and spread the word where I can but I don't know what else I can really do on my own.
 
Kinggroin

Kinggroin

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,392
Uranus, get it?!? YOUR. ANUS.
In the next 100 years :

Massive human extinction on a global scale
Earth homeostasis in effect
Temperatures return to normal


Somewhere in there, videogames will be made and played less.
 
OP
OP
Natasha Kerensky

Natasha Kerensky

Alt Account
Banned
Jul 18, 2019
262
Praha, CZ
Jackson said:
My man entire states and cities and countries will disappear. Humanity might disappear. Of course games are fucked.
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it's funny though, the games industry, hardware manufacturers, games media, and gamers themselves all act like nothing is happening. Everyone is pretending that the big bad elephant in the room that's slowly and increasingly crushing everyone to death does not exist.
 
Numberfox

Numberfox

Member
Aug 5, 2018
5,969
The apathy of humanity guarantees that the majority of people aren't going to care or worry about this until it's too late.
 
Zoph

Zoph

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,512
I seem to recall that the "rare Earth" label is a misnomer, and that they're plenty abundant; just "rare" relative to iron, carbon, and silicon.
 
Hieroph

Hieroph

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,995
And this is why you buy physical. After the climate apocalypse, your discs will still work.
 

Deleted member 37739

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Jan 8, 2018
908
Tavernade said:
Is there no other options for powering these things? I feel like there's so much money in the industry that when it comes to this they'd try and find a way to create them with different material, since otherwise it's just going to die out.
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Take a simple instance of data centres. In the past few decades these have become a major contributor to global energy consumption purely on the basis of cooling alone. However, Microsoft have begun experimenting with submerging these in the ocean, which reduces energy consumption by 95%. I doubt there's many companies out there who own mass data centres who don't have the resources to do this.

We just need a few simple taxes that put absurd levies on carbon emissions and you'd see how fast companies would innovate their way to carbon neutrality in a matter of years. Leverage capitalism for good for a change...
 
OP
OP
Natasha Kerensky

Natasha Kerensky

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Jul 18, 2019
262
Praha, CZ
RunesmithCaryll said:
The solutions exist - it's will power that's lacking. Glad to see the increasing coverage though - when I got into my environmental kick two years ago people were hardly talking about it, but I see more things like this everyday.
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the coverage has existed for 40 years and we have talked a lot about it without anything actually happening. We need to act much more faster and much more radical now, because everyone has been sitting on their hands for the last couple of decades.

we basically need a revolution
 

Deleted member 37739

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Natasha Kerensky said:
the coverage has existed for 40 years and we have talked a lot about it without anything actually happening. We need to act much more faster and much more radical now, because everyone has been sitting on their hands for the last couple of decades.

we basically need a revolution
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You're right and, honestly, I think the revolution is incoming faster than most anticipate. The shift in dialogue in the past twelve months alone has exceeded even my own hopes and the snowball effect of social media is really helping. People need to stop with the clicktvism though and start putting money and mouth together. I see way too many people call out Donald Trump for denying climate change in one post and then follow it up with a picture of some giant-sized doubled cheese burger they're about to decimate in the next.

To my mind there's two types of climate change denier: the ones who say it isn't happening and the ones who simply carry on like it isn't. The former are a fringe group who'll never be convinced, but the latter are a far bigger practical concern to my mind.

And truth be told - a lot has been done to address climate change in the past forty years, the problem is that it's all been massively offset by an evermore unsustainable drive in lifestyle (predominantly in the west). From cardboard cups to throwaway fashion to the assumption that we should be able to eat meat and dairy for every single meal of the day.

A culture revolution is what we need and that has to come from ordinary people.
 
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Kasumin

Kasumin

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Nov 19, 2017
1,929
One of the reasons I checked out of gaming coverage online after the 2016 US election. Realized there was so much bigger shit going on that would affect gaming and leisure in general, but then the attitude in the gaming community (mostly white dudes) continues to pretend like nothing is wrong. I just can't stand it anymore. I used to go to the gaming side a lot more at the old place until that point.

I still watch streams and when the steamer casually states that he doesn't pay attention to politics, I just shake my head.

I know I should watch this video, but all of this is just so depressing. And seeing so many in the gaming community ignore it (and even whine about political issues being brought up in games) messes with me on an existential level.

The denial is everywhere, but seeing it so prevalent in a community I grew up in hits particularly hard.
 

Deleted member 48434

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Oct 8, 2018
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God I really didn't need to read about this right now.
Just end my life already so I don't have to witness the motherfucking apocalypse.

Hopefully I will still have books.
 

QuigleyMcShine

Member
Jan 29, 2018
9,387
Added to Watch Later, thanks.

And yeah, I was under the impression that rare earth minerals aren't that rare, it's just that the process to get them out of the ground is so dirty that they're only really mined in countries that care even less about the environment than the US.

Maybe receding glaciers will make some of these materials more accessible in Greenland...
 
OP
OP
Natasha Kerensky

Natasha Kerensky

Alt Account
Banned
Jul 18, 2019
262
Praha, CZ
Kasumin said:
One of the reasons I checked out of gaming coverage online after the 2016 US election. Realized there was so much bigger shit going on that would affect gaming and leisure in general, but then the attitude in the gaming community (mostly white dudes) continues to pretend like nothing is wrong. I just can't stand it anymore. I used to go to the gaming side a lot more at the old place until that point.

I still watch streams and when the steamer casually states that he doesn't pay attention to politics, I just shake my head.

I know I should watch this video, but all of this is just so depressing. And seeing so many in the gaming community ignore it (and even whine about political issues being brought up in games) messes with me on an existential level.

The denial is everywhere, but seeing it so prevalent in a community I grew up in hits particularly hard.
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Click to shrink...

thank you for sharing, I sometimes feel like you and want to check out with all the people smiling, sticking their heads into the sand while the world burns.

I guess people will be forced to realize and face the music at some point. in the meantime, what matters is what we do on the local level and organize and radicalize people
 
2ndTuXx

2ndTuXx

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Oct 27, 2017
671
Don't worry, OP. Video games will be the least of your concerns during a climate change crisis.
 
SuperRaddy

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Oct 27, 2017
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kiguel182

kiguel182

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Oct 31, 2017
9,440
Society will collapse. The fact that there aren't enough minerals to make Playstations is the least of our worries.
 
NookSports

NookSports

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Oct 27, 2017
5,208
I keep comparing this current situation to the movie Armaggeddon.

If instead of Climate Change we had a giant asteroid the size of Texas hurling toward us, questions like "Will video games still exist?" and "Is X or Y plan too expensive" become completely asinine.
 
Serpens007

Serpens007

Well, Tosca isn't for everyone
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Oct 31, 2017
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Chile
Thanks for sharing

While being the least important stuff to worry about in relation to climate change, the energy consumption related to videogames is a thing to have in mind from now on
 
Brawly Likes to Brawl

Brawly Likes to Brawl

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Oct 25, 2017
14,063
Ryohei Suzuki's bedroom
Games are the least of my concerns when it comes to the planet becoming unable to properly sustain life.

Anyways, the biggest problem here is that people who have the ability shape policy to protect the environment and the ones doing the most damage. The Amazon Rainforest which provides nearly a quater of our oxygen has been burning for half a month and most people didn't know about it because the Brazilian government is down playing it.
 
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