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Conclusion of the article sums it up best:
“Our true responsibility is to use our choices as political agents in the world to try to shift power, take power away from the people who are blocking the transition away from fossil fuels and give it to people who will lead into a livable future,” [Genevieve Guenther, the author of “The Language of Climate Politics”] said.
Do what you can by yourself, sure, but only as a supplement to doing the hard work to solve the problem via collective and political action.
I agree.
But the corporations and companies that have done most of the polluting need to clean their messes up if there’s going to be any change.You, nor my neighbor, nor any of our friends dumped so much crap into nearby rivers and lakes that everything is poisoned. The corporations and companies did it.
100%
That’s cool, could we also compare that to what would happen if the wealthy and corporations also put in their fair share of individual action too?
Having a consumer base that is aware of and cares about the environment is going to help a lot on that regard.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/22/business/starbucks-ceo-commute-jet-brian-niccol.html
Don’t forget, that he could just move like the rest of the employees had to.
What if every company did something?
I mean if every one stopped ordering from temu, it’s already one problem solved and we move to the next one
If the one thing is redacted a billionaire, you would only need 3200 people.
Sounds good. I’ll start by telling all my corporations that blast the majority of CO2 emissions worldwide into the air to slow it down a bit.
They’re mostly not blasting it directly; they’re selling fossil fuels for others to blast. Changing how you commute or heat your home helps change social norms around those and lowers the rate of emissions
By God, you’re right! It was me all along. I am to blame for Climate Change! Sorry guys. I’ll stop Climate Change this instant. Sorry again.
I’m not saying that either. But we are at the point where it takes people showing neighbors the changes that everybody needs to make.
Good start. Then go vegetarian of even vegan and you should be good ;-)
That’s all it took. The crisis has actually been over for ages ever since I have stopped eating meat. I’ve done it.
you should be good
Good news, the planet is now no longer on a direct course towards being rendered inhabitable due to being destroyed for profit. I. AM. GOOD.
Problem solved. Thank you so much on behalf of all future generations of the planet.
I could tell you the facts, like how stopping eating meat is one of the easiest ways to make a huge change. I could give you some studies, show you how almost every report on climate change in the last 15 years has listet going more plant based is part of their recommendations. But you know what? I’m just fucking over with people that aren’t grown up enoth to even do the slightest little change in their lives.
We deserve the future that awaits us.
I’m slightly fed up with being promised that going meat free will get me a livable planet when I retire because I have fucking delivered my end of the bargain. I want my livable planet now.
It’s like
“You can improve our situation if you grab a thimble and start scooping water out of the boat now.”
“There’s still the giant hole in the hull that brings in a lot more water than my little thimble can deal with. What do we do about that?”
“Shut up and keep scooping :D”
Yeah. The beef thing has become the main call to action while ignoring that beef consumption has been falling since the 70’s. It’s also not clear how much of that carbon is part of the existing carbon cycle.
The solution is adding less carbon to the existing cycle which means stopping pumping including and especially “natural” gas.
Everything else is performative.
Only when we stop adding it to our environment can we have any hope at sequestration.
"natural” gas
It might seem a misnomer nowadays, but it really is a good name. It replaced town gas or syn-gas, which was artificially produced at coal gasification plants through pyrolysis and pumped into homes for heating, cooking, and lighting. It was a long time until natural gas replaced it. That shit was loaded with carbon monoxide and is the reason for the old head in the oven suicide trope.
That misses the point. It’s methane. Burning it releases carbon dioxide and whatever doesn’t burn or leaks is directly adding methane. The heat from burning it is more heat into the atmosphere.
Since we’re pumping it from underground every bit of it adds directly to the carbon cycle.
There is too much focus on what is already in the carbon cycle and while we are adding to the carbon cycle, none of it matters.
Amen!
My gas stove was leaky and could have blown up my house. So we replaced that with an induction stove, and it’s all around a better experience. Same with the water heater and the EV. All of these things plus insulating the attic have been improvements to our lives with the added benefit of reducing natural gas consumption more than 20% over the past year and saving about $100/month on utilities and gasoline. It’s nice that we aren’t pumping air pollution directly into our house when we cook anymore.
Every bit of change we make helps, because the climate crisis is not binary. but more importantly the people who can make these changes receive the greatest upfront benefits.
Thank you we’re cured now. Signed planet earth.
People have already done that for the last 30 years or even more, and the saves just went into elon musks jet gas tanks.
Sure, it’s good trying to do “your part”, but it’s worthless if everyone and especially companies aren’t forced to do the same as they won’t do it if they don’t earn money by it.
It’s really depressing how any internet discussion about global warming is full of comments like this which only exist to downplay small but existent improvements that others have made. It’s whataboutism, plain and simple, and only serves to discourage people from doing anything at all.
This guy getting a more efficient stove isn’t going to save the planet, but at least it helps. Your comment (and many others in this thread) doesn’t do anything at all about our climate problem, and mostly serves to make other people feel stupid and inadequate for even trying to do something.
There is so much, so fucking much, that needs to be done to save our planet. If you think that political change is the only thing that will “really” matter to save the planet (it’s obviously going to be a huge factor), and you are so deeply committed to the ideal that the only things worth doing are those which directly further said political change, then you have serious work to do on your messaging strategy because what you had to say here clearly isn’t causing global change.
Alternately, if you think the situation is so impossible that nothing can be done to save it, go find a different void to yell into and stop trying to drag down those of us who still have some hope.
I effectively think that only political will can “fix” our climate crisis, and that propaganda about how to use less water or bike to work (or whatever change your stove or other buy-things bs) is just deflecting from the real problem so that people like you can do literally nothing to stop the big polluters and still get the fuzzy feelings.
Also, as you see, it effectively stops discussions about climate change at an extremely low level.
Yes political will can fix it. But for that we need people to vote in mass for such politics. Thus every individual will and actions counts because it can show a change is possible, as mentionned in the article people reacts when confronted to new behavior around : oh my neighbour installed EV heater and insulated his roof, maybe it can improve my house too, oh my colleague is biking to work, he is fit and healthy and saves money, maybe if this cunt can do it I can try too it will save me gas money and gym subscription.
And when you begin to pay attention to an “healthy” way of life, you enlarge the spectrum : e.g. I try to save water so I do not want to support big companies that pollute it (oil, intensive farming, chemical, electronics…) and I will try to avoid buying their products (sure I can’t cut all but I will try to find alternatives) etc…
Free solar panels for everyone.
Free heat pumps for everyone.
We need everyone on free clean electricity now and cut all natural gas lines to homes, businesses and factories. Nothing else comes close to the impact of those and it will drive a change in other sectors like transportation when there is free clean electricity everywhere.
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What if everybody did something to slow or reverse climate change? Like organize democratically to overthrow capitalism.
A better standard of living could be achieved with 30% of current production because of how incredibly wasteful and redundant capitalist production is. That leaves a ton of headroom for treats, and we can still strike a metabolic balance with our planet.
I’m sorry but these things drive me bonkers angry
You can’t ask billions of people to do shit whilst < 2700 billionaires refuse to do shit because they need their private jet to buy an apple. You can’t ask me to do a huge thing with zero impact whilst oil companies actively sabotage every effort to improve the climate so that shareholders can get that extra dollar.
All who works for a big company and do all they shit for them are not better than the corporatives. Follow orders is a coise.
That’s mostly a waste of time.
The big companies and massive organizations are the ones really doing the damage. This isn’t really a tragedy of the commons.
But individuals do need to make the changes they can, because if every company and government did the right thing, we still wouldn’t be all the way there. Climate is an impossibly big issue, and need everything and then a little bit more to get out of the mess.
Stop buying their shit!
Who do those big companies and massive organizations (?!) produce for?
It would be a good rebuttal if there wasn’t all the marketing and ads to consume.
Ad agencies literally study what works and what doesn’t, always refining their techniques, so that they can sell you more shit.
If you’re susceptible to ads then that is also on you.
Literally not. This is human nature. If you think you aren’t affected by ads, think again.
Marketing has researched what triggers our animal response, and we are affected to varying degrees. Some people more, some people less.
But you most likely bought something because you saw an ad.
Oh I am definitely affected by ads, because I’m completely fucking allergic to them. If I see an ad, I immediately don’t want to have anything to do with the product, and if it is a website I close it immediately if it forces me to watch it.
Generally consumers, and I agree with your overall sentiment, but other major exchanges of goods and energy include things like military and essential services.
I’m making changes where I can, but I can’t just refuse medical services because my doctor doesn’t use a free-range organic MRI, and me bringing a reusable bag to the grocery store does nothing to reduce the amount of toxic waste the US military lights on fire every year.
I need internet, but there’s only one provider in my area. If my house is on fire or I call an ambulance, I don’t care what kind toxic gases are coming out of the first responder’s tailpipes.
I’ll still continue to fly less, buy less, drive my EV, swap my gas appliances, procure renewable electricity, and use more sustainable products. It’s not going to solve all of the worlds problems, but I do think collective action has the potential to drive a significant amount of the global transition to lower emissions.
The rest is done at the polls.
Edward Bernays