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Comment by polote | Hacker News Reader

> 40% of the public who see climate change as some kind of job destroying conspiracy.

These people are not the ones who need to take action, so who cares?

Policy makers are the ones who need to act, and they are already well aware for most of the consequences of global warming. The issue is that a lot of big corporations (The ones which really control police makers) are not going to be advantaged by transforming the society to a more respectful one regarding nature. So things move slowly, until things are getting really bad and day to day activities are drastically affected by global warming

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Blaming "big corporations" for our woes looks pretty unconstructive to me. Most big corporations got big by giving consumers what they want. Trying to reduce emissions through big corporations (AFAICT the focus will be largely on energy, transport and construction) means making their products more expensive, which always triggers responses of regressiveness / inequality, short-circuiting the whole debate.

Put in another way: regardless whether execs at the oil and flight companies are to blame, or their flying and driving customers, a solution must involve large reductions in the amount of fuel burnt (which inevitably requires making that much more expensive than it is now).

Policy makers who rely on the ignorant 40%’s vote to stay in a job aren’t going to risk their salary and pension.

The candidates all mostly have the same program. Having the choice is an illusion.

Trump is not doing what's right for his supporter, he is doing what companies who paid him ask.

Biden is not doing what's right for his supporter, he is doing what companies who paid him ask.

That's not conspiracy theory, that's the model on which our society is built on

I can't stress enough how enormously sad and true this is. The system is broken.

General public will understand the problem when first country ceases to exist (there are multiple candidates that will completely become uninhabitable in a few decades).

Some of those countries are known as “shithole countries” by CC deniers. I doubt many will care.

They will care when there countries start getting migrants CC migrants?

Mind you they're probably the types to start a civil war when private fossil fuel use, gasoline/petrol/diesel, becomes illegal.

> They will care when there countries start getting migrants CC migrants?

We had an immigration wave in Germany in the mid-2010's and all it did was help a right-leaning party without much care for climate change gain power.

> These people are not the ones who need to take action, so who cares?

Yes they are - big corporations and governments only do things when the public goes along with them, otherwise they go bust or get voted out.

It will take people making choices, changing the way they live, travel, eat, and buy things and using the products of companies that support that to make any change.

The public elects the policy makers.

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