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Comment by bippihippi1 | Hacker News Reader

100 businesses are responsible for 70% of fossil fuel use. doing what you can is great, but it won't make a difference unless businesses change as well.

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I have heard that stat before and it turns out those business are basically shipping and freight companies, car manufacturers etc.

if you somehow told the companies to stop burning oil and carbon most world trade would stop, and they would have to take peoples cars a away

Yes we could reduce the impact (burn cleaner diesel on ships, avoid contrails) but this is not 100 evil companies that need to be taught a lesson - this is all of us, billions of humans and our default lifestyle

The problem with that framing is that those big companies aren't just responding to consumer demand but have also actively lobbied for policies that create said demand. For instance shipping companies pay a much lower corporate tax rate than other companies and car companies have lobbied against everything from efficiency and clear air regulation to creating alternatives to a car-first transportation system. Oil companies are in a league of themselves and we're only starting to see shenanigans they've done to stall dealing with climate change.

Those businesses are big because they’re the abstraction layer over the fact that what they produce is something a lot of people want. If they were destroyed overnight an awful lot of people would die and then their economic function would be reconstituted, probably more carbon intensive because it’s more robust to supply chain disruption.

a lot of people would be inconvenienced. if they are unable to farm and support themselves in case of an emergency it's due to environmental collapse. they should move somewhere less damaged. the alternative is to keep spreading the damage

I can no more complain about Exxon-Mobil creating emissions relating to the fuel that I buy than I can the local farmer killing a cow to make the beef that I buy.

Yes, I can. I never wanted to buy the fuel in the first place. It's just that everything was designed in such a way that I must burn it to survive. I go out of my way not to whenever possible but my economic constraints don't allow freedom from it.

Even if I manage to find somewhere that I don't need it, a ridiculous amount will be used behind the scenes for everything else I need. Or there will be 100 others who can't get into that situation.

I'm not living a lavish life where I can just cut back much either. I'm living a barebones one and still cutting it close financially despite being a developer.

did you ask either to do what they did? is the toxic sludge from a butcher seeping into your water and killing you?

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