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What, then, is your comprehensive alternative?

We probably, at this stage, need to approach this issue with a certainly level of moderated-panic, and attempt to address it on al lines across all levels.

It stands to reason that if the general population can influence corporate decision making that might have a knock-on effect to cause companies to influence government decision making.

I'd hazard a guess that Jeff Bezos ability to influence government policy far exceeds mine by orders of magnitude.

>We probably, at this stage, need to approach this issue with a certainly level of moderated-panic, and attempt to address it on al lines across all levels.

What does this mean? I have been hearing the terms "global warming" and "crisis" for almost 20 years now, yet it is almost always followed up with talk -- talk about how others could change their lifestyle choices, talk about how organizations can change how they function, talk about how we can talk even more to the right people. Very rarely have I ever seen a plan -- a formulated, step-by-step guide on what people or organizations must sacrifice in order to bring about a better future, and even less so people who actually act on that plan instead of simply reiterating it to anyone within earshot.

I would absolutely not be surprised if this event, which some consider to be "necessary" on any level, does nothing to impact Amazon to change anything to improve the climate situation -- as far as they can see from my perspective, they see 900+ employees, some of whom are probably part-time and not getting paid anyways, with no actual plan of how global warming should be solved with respect to Amazon, but want to feel good for a time, feel as though they are making some level of actionable change on the world, until their time is over and they go back to work while they patiently wait for

>one of the most innovative companies[0]

to come up with a plan themselves. I've seen it time and time again, it solves nothing, achieves nothing. And I'd bet it all on black that this earns them nothing but contempt from their supervisors/managers.

[0]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1joUIg5O5pRS_R2OqXoJzbuCX...

You talk about talk in your opening paragraph, yet these people are actually trying to do something so I am not sure why you are so against it? It doesn't matter if they are part-time, full-time, janitor, Lead Designer, or the office coffee boy. Climate change affects them and they are trying to take action in getting Amazon to listen to them. They are doing much more than you and I discussing it on HN.

> Very rarely have I ever seen a plan -- a formulated, step-by-step guide on what people or organizations must sacrifice in order to bring about a better future, and even less so people who actually act on that plan instead of simply reiterating it to anyone within earshot.

Perhaps you've heard of the Green New Deal?[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal#Models_for_impl...

I believe you have neglected to response to the most important part of my comment:

What, then, is your comprehensive alternative?

You ask for an alternative as if there is a solution already being proposed, and yet, I see none.

I can definitely understand that perspective.

Perhaps my earlier comments were too harsh, given I definitely feel defeated with regards to climate change. My current approach is to simply not care, as the added stress of caring didn't help and didn't do any favours to my general well being.

It's all looking like a lot of too little too late. But, fortunately, at my age, I'll probably miss the worse of it.

We probably need to simultaneously drastically limit carbon emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon / remove CO2 from the oceans. And I can't see how that's going to happen prior to things getting a lot worse.

Having said that, we did act collectively to implement the Montreal Protocol[1], so there's a bit of a precedent for acting at this scale... but there were fairly straightforward alternatives to ozone depleting gas.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol

No offense taken, I've been downvoted a lot and I can understand people have very passionate beliefs on issues of this scale, I'm also passionate in my belief that talk, protests and walkouts, while they have an impact on awareness and of course the right people being aware of the issue may get us somewhere, does not get us anywhere in today's age.

Everyone knows of global warming, I don't want to see more talks, more protests and more blame, I want to see plans being enacted, laws being enforced, the world actually improving, but that's not what I see in this Amazon spectacle.

Yeah, I reckon that's probably what everyone wants to see by this stage: actual changes. So I see these walk-outs and protests[1] as a sort of throw ya hands in the air cos won't somebody fckn do something already sort of action.

(For what it's worth, I didn't down vote any of your comments. I typically up vote anything I engage in, and usually only down vote comments that are shallow or abusive).

1. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-15/students-walk-out-of-...

If I had to weigh what you are doing here against what Amazon employees are pledging...

I'd have to say what you're doing here is having a few magnitudes of order less impact on climate change.

Use the three boxes... Soap, Ballot, and Ammo... in that order.

>Is this a Silicon Valley thing?

No. It's part of the planed 20/9 global CC strike, that was initiated by kids outside of US.

>Then, on top of that, virtually skipping work so I can complain even further, I'm surprised no one gets fired on the spot.

I believe it would actually be illegal to fire employees for this. US employers generally cannot legally punish employees for striking.

But at-will states can word it so they were not fired for it. There would be many ways these employees can be dismissed and it would never be labelled for 'striking'.

I think I made a similar statement in regards to one of the Google walkouts. It's incredibly weak and childish. Quit and prove that money isn't your true god if you actually believe it matters.

>Is this a Silicon Valley thing? People becoming far too attached with what their company is doing.

Given the severity and near-certainty of climate change, it makes sense to try and drive multinational enterprises to do better. Should they just instead give up and go, "Eh, fuck the planet up, whatever"? Do you have a better alternative for driving large entities to make a positive change?

A corporation's identity comes from someone's personal views. Many folks think that someone should be the workers at the company, rather than, say, the CEO or a PR dept.

Many times one works for a company whose values partially align with theirs. Maybe they have good charitable work, or they are engaged with open source. But they also have things that you disagree with -- maybe they don't treat their workers well in some way or another, maybe their parental leave policy is poor.

So, you try to change the company as step one -- let's get a better parental leave policy! Then, if you aren't getting traction, and your labor is valuable, you have leverage and can continue to try and invoke change. If change still won't happen, then you can walk.

It's better, I think, for people to provide a moral compass to the companies they work for, then to ignore it and hope that the behemoth will just make a good decision.

Probably you're just not giving yourself enough credit. Your employer probably prefers for you to work for them instead of quitting. A strike is basically a negotiation tactic and the company can make a counter-offer. You can negotiate all kinds of things as conditions of your employment, especially together with your co-workers.

When the options are a) leave and have no job, or b) leave and go to another company also doing little to mitigate climate change, people are looking for option c.

Isn't option c to start a company that does what you believe in? A lot of social purpose companies seem to be doing pretty well these days.

If you dislike fossil fuel companies, build one that obsoletes their business model (e.g. Tesla). If you dislike mining operations for employee mistreatment, start a company based on fair trade products (e.g. Fairphone). And if you care about these causes, support them with your wallet and evangelize them.

People say these companies are too big to compete with, but they used to say the same thing when these companies are created. Feel free to strike, but remember you can also vote to your feet, your wallet, and your labor.

Definitely a good strategy!

If you believe that climate change poses an existential risk then it isn't just a view that you may hold. The actions of your company along this front would represent a threat to your health and safety. You would be suicidal in a sense to not try to use your leverage (striking) to change the policy of the company. Maybe they can replace one person but replacing 900 people would be a huge disadvantage.

Belief that climate change is inevitable is not just a view, no, but believing that my company can do anything within it's power to have positive enough effect on climate change that is anywhere near noticeable on anyone that doesn't know what my company is doing, is. If I'm looking to blame someone for the effects of global warming on my health, my employer is last on my list.

Well if you worked for a monopsonistic giant like amazon the calculus changes a bit.