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Comment by Doxin | Hacker News Reader

Expecting 8 Billion humans to get together and not buy products which are bad for the environment is unrealistic. You can barely get any three people to agree on any one topic.

The issue here isn't blame. The issue is at what level do we start making shit illegal to where it's most effective at affecting the desired change.

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Let me see if I understand this correctly.

Your idea is to stop the wasteful SUVs by making oil production illegal, and letting each user figure out how to replace it. My guess is that the hospitals will scream that they really need diesel for their emergency backup power, and nothing will come of it.

Your idea is to ban production of concrete, and each customer will figure out an alternative. I predict the same fate with different details.

Your … it's like this for every sector. Basically, a ban on production leads to the widest possible coalition against the ban, including extremely popular institutions like hospitals, who really need diesel but hardly ever burn it. Politically it's a pessimal strategy.

None of those are my idea, but feel free to continue believing they are if that makes you feel better.

I intuit that it doesn't make you feel better, or feel good. Is that correct? If so, why?

What is this? a high concept "u mad bro"?

I fail to see how my feelings are relevant to the discussion.

Blame is a big issue though. No one is willing to take responsibility for their own behaviors which means ultimately nothing gets done. People will just keep buying bigger cars, taking more international vacations, consuming more single use plastics because "its someone else's problem."

I mean sure. Fine. Lets blame consumers for making poor choices. Done. Now what? The world is still polluted and getting worse by the day.

Blame doesn't solve anything, other than maybe making some subset of people feel good.

Consumers have the same access to goods in both the US and Europe, but Americans have a much higher carbon footprint.

The best thing anyone can do for the planet is not have children. By a huge margin. A few generations on and there will be far fewer consumers if more people were to embrace this idea.

Or following that misanthropic logic to its conclusion, perhaps we should do nothing at all, and let pollution run rampant. That way, humanity will eliminate itself, and the biosphere will return to normal within a few million years.

Shut down the nuclear plants and bury the waste as best as possible first, but yes that’s an option as well.

I’d prefer we figure out ways to grow ourselves out of the problem through technology (renewables, EVs and trains, battery storage, etc) but hey, people need their SuperDuty pickups.

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