Nobody cares. We're too busy trying to get through our lives. No, I'm not a climate change denier, I'm a climate-change not-care-er. I keep my heat/AC where I'm comfortable. I drive a large comfortable ICE vehicle. Would I buy an EV, solar panel roof, home backup batteries - if they were cheap and as convenient as what I have today? you bet. Persuade me with things that make my life easier, or cost me less than what I have today.
> Nobody cares. We're too busy trying to get through our lives. No, I'm not a climate change denier, I'm a climate-change not-care-er. I keep my heat/AC where I'm comfortable. I drive a large comfortable ICE vehicle. Would I buy an EV, solar panel roof, home backup batteries - if they were cheap and as convenient as what I have today? you bet. Persuade me with things that make my life easier, or cost me less than what I have today.
This is the perfect demonstration of the type of attitude that is pervasive among the high energy use, heavy emission segments of humanity. Most people simply do not like to face the consequences of their actions; they believe their lives must be constantly made easier and more comfortable as part of modernity, progress, human development -- whatever you want to call it.
As became evident in the last few years, its far too late to avoid the effects of climate change. Now its a question of how bad it will get. Well as long as this is the prevailing attitude (and while I have no source to say it is, I feel this to be so), we are ensured to have no short term solutions; so we can count on a future with intermittent catastrophe.
What I find most interesting about this wicked problem is that its loudest proponents also make themselves doubly vulnerable by emphasizing the importance of individualism and downplaying the need for communal response. So its interesting to me to see at what threshold the "make my life easier", "I want a big pickup truck", "I deserve comfort" sentiment starts to be the driver of demanding assistance for natural disasters, drought, famine, etc. We are already seeing it happen in parts of the US southwest, in south florida, and to some extent in the California central valley.
Anyways, I would argue its wrong when people describe climate change as a technical or scientific problem. As we can see, its very much a social and cultural issue -- maybe secondarily an economic one. I think the above sentiment provably captures that.
Actually, a lot of people care. It's just easier to pretend that it's "nobody" so that you can maintain the philosophy that your personal comfort is what matters most in this world.
The only way things get better is via technology that allows people to use the same amount of energy in ways that are less destructive. Anything else is fighting against human nature and wasting your breath.
Human nature is irrelevant. If not, it will be one day.
> Human nature is irrelevant.
Nope. If your plan is to make people do what they don’t want, instead of making what they want tolerable, you’ve already lost.
>If not, it will be one day.
Definitely nope. Climate change will change a lot of things, but even in the most extreme projections, it doesn’t come anywhere close to wiping us out.
I can see where a lot more people than we care to believe follow a philosophy in the same vain as that which was stated. Go ahead, do a survey and I bet you get a lot of "I care about climate change," but who's telling the truth and who's just trying not to look like a selfish a-hole? More people will lie, saying they care than will admit the truth and say they don't care.
This also assumes prices will get cheaper, they will not. Climate change will cause prices to increase.
It's shocking how little foresight people have about this. You don't have to start screaming in the streets - but to publicly proclaim you have zero empathy... and so proudly too.
Potentially one could convince you to favour forcing everybody (yourself included) to reduce emissions, but this seems unlikely when you start off a post with a mocking "the sky is falling!" with a middle of "I drive a large car and keep the heat comfortable" and end it with "convince me". Why would it be in anybodies strategic interest to convincing somebody openly hostile who affirms a minority position? It's more time-efficient to convince other people to use force against parties that you rely on for goods and services, as well as you directly.
Everyone doesn't have to be an activist or even perform outrage (for whatever marginal benefit that has to the cause), but if you're not willing to accept some level of inconvenience then that is a little abhorrent.
Which on a planetary scale, it very much is.
Don't bet against reality. Reality doesn't care what you want. You will always lose.
Given that, I prioritize my comfort and convenience over any of the low efficacy virtue signaling that certain faction in this discussion seems to demand. In practice, this means that I sometimes throw dirty plastic in the garbage rather than washing it for recycling. It’s not clear that washing would be making effective use of potable water given the vanishingly low chance that my plastic will actually be meaningfully recycled. And I don’t have a grey water system available for that kind of task. I didn’t own a car from about 2011 until 2019 because I was lucky to live in areas that supported that lifestyle choice. I have two now because I have relocated somewhere that requires one and I like having a high capacity utility vehicle available. Does that make me the problem? In comparison to another individual in Ghana, sure, absolutely yes. In comparison to a whole multitude of industries like cruise ships which have been allowed to leave their emissions externalities unregulated and unaccounted for? No, I don’t even show up on that chart. So yes, I will be using my air conditioning to stay comfortable. And yes I am also very, very fucking angry that I am trapped in a system that gives me little opportunity to address the systematic problems I observe around me every day. So, op, I see you out there but don’t be afraid to engage in the discussion and push back on the virtue signaling requests.
[1] https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-...
[2] https://www.geekyexplorer.com/cruise-ship-pollution/
[3] https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/18351/emissions-from-crui...
Maybe you don't care but your emissions kill people.