A true tragedy of the commons.
individual actions ALONE will not fix the problem, but they might be necessary to encourage broader societal change. Apparently it only takes 3.5% of the population to take an active stance on something to cause a change (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=YJSehRlU34w). Don't feel discouraged to adjust your lifestyle just because the effect is "negligible".
If there are ever enough bleeding heart, average, first world, wealthy (by global standards), vegan converts who will "encourage broader societal change" then I will eat my hat.
I'll eat a whole shop full of hats.
A billion dirt poor Bangladeshis would kill you and your whole family for the luxury of having a hotdog and a flip phone. They don't give a shit about you and your vegan burger, or that you switched you whole house to LED lights because they're 82% more efficient.
That's why we're fucked.
To curtail global climate change you would first need to forgo all modern luxuries and then wipe all third world countries from the map.
good luck with that.
p.s. this kind of charts give me hope https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-03/impossibl... It might be too little too late, but at least we can say we tried.
This is self-flagellation and sorry, but it does nothing and has no impact on the bigger picture.
You don't need to suffer to change your lifestyle. I reduced meat consumption by 50-75% and do not miss it. If I feel like eating meat I do - and I attribute the success of it to the fact that it was not a complete change like becoming a vegetarian. You can fail at being a vegetarian. I can't have a I gave in and not I don't even have to try anymore and go back to my old lifestyle-moment. I might not have consumed as little meat as I initially wanted but as much as possible without suffering from it.
No, it's quite the opposite. Flying is a terrible experience anyway, traffic jams are awful, working less is the best thing in the world, less meet is good for you.
It's like saying exercise is self-flagellation. It's not.
But again, you sound just like me a couple of years ago. We might have more in common than you imagine.
You're doing just enough to soothe your conscience without actually depriving yourself.
The problem is, that's not nearly enough to make any difference. Not even close.
To actually make a difference you and every single first-world citizen would need to forgo
- all imported goods
- all electronics
- all plastics
- all red meat
- all heating and cooling
- all private transportation
- ration electricity
- most industrial goods
- ration food (a lot of GHG are produced by agriculture)
And third world countries would need to all agree to stop economic progress and revert to pre-industrial conditions.
We will all drown in rising flood waters before any of that will ever happen.
It's a technological solution or bust.
The only other "solution" is that climate change will reduce human population back to a few hundred thousand and we start all over again.
(To be clear: I don't think that the worst results of climate change ("reduce human population back to a few hundred thousand and we start all over again") are assured, even if we're currently not even close to doing enough; but I think the odds are plenty high, and thus, plenty alarming.)
As someone who has been long dancing with the despair you're dancing with right now, allow me to gently suggest something to you.
> feel-good eco activism
> You're doing just enough to soothe your conscience without actually depriving yourself.
Let's assume that these are accurate. Then, let's assume for a moment that a person who comes to sufficiently understand the size and magnitude of the problems we're facing can go one of three ways.
1. The person has the fortitude and wherewithal to make the necessary changes, and does embrace a completely different, radical personal way of life. A small percentage of people do this.
2. The person embraces the realities, sufficient to motivate them to various changes in action and perspective, but still all together insufficient compared to the total scope of the problem.
3. Fall into despair.
This is a simplification, of course. It's quite possible for a person to items 1 or 2 and also 3.
My point: our greatest enemy here is despair.
It's better to go part of the way, #2 above, and avoid despair than it is to do nothing. It's far better to do #2 above than it is to fall into despair.
I urge you to give all people, yourself included, permission to push through various stages of acceptance and action.
Operations like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Breakthrough Energy Ventures are doing far more to realistically put a stop to climate change than anyone else is at this point.
hahahahahaha ooooh boy, that is some grade A wishful thinking.
Here's a thought... try to convince the average Joe to not turn on his air conditioning on a hot day "for the environment".
see how that goes.
We are a selfish species that deserves to go extinct. Have you ever considered that?
If "we" are not a selfish species, say 99% are really good, and would shut off the AC, say no to meat, wish to ban plastics etc...
The 1%, can and would destroy and burn the planet. Remember, BP oil spill in the Gulf? Thats just one. On a global scale, the few hundreds of millions, and of those dozens, are burning the planet, despite the billions who do not.
The destructive capacity of the few far outwidth the constructive capacity of the many.
The problem is not the air condition or the electricity needed to run the air conditioner.
The problem is the electricity was generated by burning a fossil fuel and that causes massive amounts of CO2 pollution.
So the solution is quite simple.
Just tax, and tax hard any electricity producer that is creating CO2 pollution.
What will happen is for a short time Joe's electricity bill will go up and he will put his air con on low.
But in the longer term market forces will quickly find ways to make electricity without producing CO2 just so that they can sell cheaper electricity to Joe and have him once again cranking up his air con to full.
Right now there is no real cost to creating CO2 pollution so of course there is no incentive to stop producing CO2.
Totally agree. The Earth will handle that.
It seems we need to do everything we can individually, we need governments to step forward, AND we need companies/academics to innovate numerous times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation#Effects_o...
I hope that technology will save us, but if not then we are finished.
If tech can't save us from ourselves then the only sane thing left to do is to wring every last bit of enjoyment from our fossil dependent lives before it all disappears forever. Eat a burger, drive a Cadillac, leave your lights on, enjoy your imported beer and set off your imported fireworks because expecting Johhny average to put off his iPhone upgrade is down right delusional.
We're all going to hell together, yee haw.
I'd like to encourage you to take a look and see what you can find about career opportunities in the clean energy sector. You may be surprised at how many software and tech jobs there are (it's a fast growing space).
I hope so.
Please, try to at least be honest enough to openly admit you don't care about climate change out of convenience for yourself.
yes, it's true, I can't see myself going back to a pre-industrial quality of life for the sake of climate change, and be honest, neither can you. The resources used to produce the computer you typed your comment on probably equates to 50 years of resource consumption of someone from 1500AD. Not to mention your phone, car, earphones, public transport, roads, electricity, air conditioning, heating, Netflix, Youtube, datacenters, air travel, grocery shopping, insane supply chain that made your $50 Levis possible etc. etc.
Add in billions of people who are aspiring to your level of affluence + billions more who will be born who will fight tooth and nail to experience the luxury of Netlix and chill and you see we are fucked. There is no way out of this and no amount of tree hugging will make things better. Joe average wants his SUV, cheap jeans and Happy Meal. Fuck you if you get in his way.
It's a whirlpool of catastrophe and you can't get out of it even if you tried.
Technology will save us or the species is finished.
>political action is possible
Your "Save the Whales" badge is part of the problem (literally, plastic + metal pin produced in a third world country). Your political banners and TV adverts are part of the problem. All by products of fossil fuels.
For all the people down voting, I suggest considering this voice as a weapon in the fight against climate change. It might be salty but there's virtue in it.