We're pushing the boundaries of Anthropocene.
What changes have you made in your life since learning of "Global Warming due to green-house gases"?
Turned vegan, started walking, cycling; gave up on pleasure trips?
What changes have you made in your life since learning of "Global Warming due to green-house gases"?
Turned vegan, started walking, cycling; gave up on pleasure trips?
By taking the resolute habit not to use the car for short trips, the side benefits are that my kids now bike everywhere in the city independently and instead of 700km per tank on average, we are at 1000km. We drive less and for what we drive we reduced our per km consumption. It is really a win-win habit.
We need to solve these problems upstream.
To solve these problems we need to solve them upstream at the regulatory level. There is no way we are going to solve climate change by trying to get everyone to use their bikes for short trips. But if we had pushed fleet wide efficiency standards harder we would be in a much better position. The solution will only begin to be obtained by nudging everyone in the right direction by only giving the “right” option.
It's just sad that many people cannot imagine anything else besides individual responsibility these days. The brainwashing by industry to this condition has been extremely successful.
You don't tell the public "Drink driving is really bad, so please be considerate and don't do it". Instead you ban drink driving and vigorously enforce the ban.
Is it really necessary for everyone to eat meat every day? (30% of Western Europeans already say no [1].) Is it really necessary for everyone to buy a new smartphone every year?
In fact, you have a moral imperative to stop doing this, since you are covering for the actual actors with bad morality by misrepresenting where the moral failing lies.
Corporations have no moral values, only a profit motive. The only way to improve them is through legislation. Legislation is written by politicians, who are elected by individuals*. Therefore, individual awareness is in fact _the only way we have*_ to lower CO2 emissions.
* in functioning democracies
Who cares about this theoretical BS though? It's useless. The model isn't predictive. Those are spherical cows. At this point we know the areas where public support is most detached from policy and it always corresponds to wealth.
So just start using the adult model of the world already.
So... what do you think is a useful, workable approach?
10% of MEPs (Members of European Parliament) are already Greens. 9% of the Dutch parliament is [GreenLeft + Party for the Animals], and that's not even counting the Labour party (who have similar policies). 9% of the German Bundestag is Greens. Are all those representatives spherical cows? Were they all voted in by the wealthy?
Sure, 10% of legislators isn't huge in the grand scheme of things. But again, _the only way_ to increase that percentage is for the people to go out and vote, and that road starts with awareness.
Did you know that in 2019, 60 flights departed from Amsterdam to London every day [1] - just a 4-hour journey by rail [2]? Clearly someone's taking all those flights.
Re: public health - I don't exactly understand the argument you're trying to make.
[1] https://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/241554/londen-populairste-bes...
[2] https://www.nsinternational.com/en/england/london-by-train
A single action by the government wiped out tens of millions of plastic pieces per year effortlessly.
So yes, the solution was for us to stop doing certain things. It's just enforcement that matters.
Yeah, this is generally called "collective action" when it is contrasted with "individual action".
(This was government action)
Stopped using car or bike unless it's impossible to use bicycle
Planted 50+ plants
Use of solar lamps etc
Considering AC unit. Maybe not this year, but next one definitly.