Operative word you. Individual action was a deliberate red herring constructed by the FF industry propaganda machines half a fucking century ago, because they knew who the actual significant contributors to the problem were.
300m cows slaughtered a year at 500lb of beef per cow and 22lb of co2 per lb of beef is 1.65B tons of co2e a year from cows. Global aviation makes up 920m tons of co2 from flying
Operative word you. Individual action was a deliberate red herring constructed by the FF industry propaganda machines half a fucking century ago, because they knew who the actual significant contributors to the problem were.
I agree that large scale changes require tax reform, advertising bans and massive investments in trains and public transit. But you can’t do that without political power.
Large scale changes starts with people being aware. Otherwise, it’s doomed to fail. Look at what just happened in Canada. Justin Trudeau banned oil tankers off the coast of British Columbia and he tried to ban single use plastics. He faced outraged reactions.
Some angry politicians were publically taunting him on social media and sued his government :
See what happened? The guy was the Prime Minister of a major country. He had tremendous political power. He tried some small changes. He faced brutal political backlash. Why? The people weren’t ready.
In fact, Marc Carney, who succeeded Trudeau, was saved by Quebec where climate change denial is practically non-existent and you can get elected Mayor of Montreal by promising to reduce cars. Without Quebec, English Canada would have elected the “I love plastics” guy.
So yes, I do agree that real change takes political power. You need things like tax breaks for people who use public transit, congestion pricing, taxing airports more, banning ads for SUVs, requiring electronic devices to be repairable, etc… These actions would be far more efficient than any individual action. Sure.
But that doesn’t mean that you, as an individual, shouldn’t do anything. Change starts with individuals. Only when you reach a critical mass of individuals can you start trying to push for policy changes.
It’s a manner of perspective, Coca Cola is considered one of the largest polluters on the planet but that’s not because corporate Coca Cola is out there polluting for funsies it’s because they make a product that individuals purchase and then individuals improperly dispose of. Sure no one person can stop Coca Cola from polluting but isn’t the pollution caused by your individual purchase your own responsibility?
it’s more than a challenge, it’s a fucking fantasy dude lmfao. people don’t wake up everyday and choose to do these things, they do these things out of necessity. even if individual action was effective in stemming climate change (it’s not), you have to acknowledge that people aren’t choosing where and how they get their food. you can’t blame someone for not being willing to sacrifice their own comfort or economic posture for a *checks notes* infinitesimally small, improbable, and uncertain chance that their actions might help the environment, maybe, just a little bit. that’s fucking patently absurd to expect any rational agent to make that choice the way you are advocating.
even in this weird victim-blaming mindset people advocating on this basis have, the corps are still at fault! it’s fucking doublespeak and brainwashing, i swear.
Operative word you. Individual action was a deliberate red herring constructed by the FF industry propaganda machines half a fucking century ago, because they knew who the actual significant contributors to the problem were.
Direct action has value… But people whine about beef when the best one is not not fly.
300m cows slaughtered a year at 500lb of beef per cow and 22lb of co2 per lb of beef is 1.65B tons of co2e a year from cows. Global aviation makes up 920m tons of co2 from flying
Thank you
I agree that large scale changes require tax reform, advertising bans and massive investments in trains and public transit. But you can’t do that without political power.
Large scale changes starts with people being aware. Otherwise, it’s doomed to fail. Look at what just happened in Canada. Justin Trudeau banned oil tankers off the coast of British Columbia and he tried to ban single use plastics. He faced outraged reactions.
Some angry politicians were publically taunting him on social media and sued his government :
https://www.ctvnews.ca/calgary/article/we-will-continue-to-push-back-alberta-to-continue-single-use-plastics-ban-fight-with-federal-government/
A guy literally campaigned on defending plastics and slashing the (tiny) tax on carbon.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-scrap-plastics-ban-1.7514037
See what happened? The guy was the Prime Minister of a major country. He had tremendous political power. He tried some small changes. He faced brutal political backlash. Why? The people weren’t ready.
In fact, Marc Carney, who succeeded Trudeau, was saved by Quebec where climate change denial is practically non-existent and you can get elected Mayor of Montreal by promising to reduce cars. Without Quebec, English Canada would have elected the “I love plastics” guy.
So yes, I do agree that real change takes political power. You need things like tax breaks for people who use public transit, congestion pricing, taxing airports more, banning ads for SUVs, requiring electronic devices to be repairable, etc… These actions would be far more efficient than any individual action. Sure.
But that doesn’t mean that you, as an individual, shouldn’t do anything. Change starts with individuals. Only when you reach a critical mass of individuals can you start trying to push for policy changes.
It’s a manner of perspective, Coca Cola is considered one of the largest polluters on the planet but that’s not because corporate Coca Cola is out there polluting for funsies it’s because they make a product that individuals purchase and then individuals improperly dispose of. Sure no one person can stop Coca Cola from polluting but isn’t the pollution caused by your individual purchase your own responsibility?
No. Coke could make biodegradable packaging and choose not to because number go up. Next question.
And people could not purchase non biodegradable products
If everyone got together and did the individual action, it would become significant.
But getting a big percentage of the population to come together and do something is the challenge.
it’s more than a challenge, it’s a fucking fantasy dude lmfao. people don’t wake up everyday and choose to do these things, they do these things out of necessity. even if individual action was effective in stemming climate change (it’s not), you have to acknowledge that people aren’t choosing where and how they get their food. you can’t blame someone for not being willing to sacrifice their own comfort or economic posture for a *checks notes* infinitesimally small, improbable, and uncertain chance that their actions might help the environment, maybe, just a little bit. that’s fucking patently absurd to expect any rational agent to make that choice the way you are advocating.
even in this weird victim-blaming mindset people advocating on this basis have, the corps are still at fault! it’s fucking doublespeak and brainwashing, i swear.
And this is where it falls apart.
Economics will force something eventually… That’d how we ended up using plastics to wrap all of the food we eat 🤡