Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

Comment by epistasis | Hacker News Reader

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It is quite ironic that capitalism and the profit motive are now the best hope for staving off climate change, all thanks to the technologists and entrepreneurs that have mad renewables and storage so cheap.

The 2020s climate action movement in the US (and the UK) was disastrous in their strategy, action, and outcomes. I was there, I followed along because it seemed like the best way to get climate action, but things like Sunrise and XR at their very best did nothing. They focused on all the wrong people, focused on all the wrong levers. They turned allies into enemies, by "protesting" tech companies that were at the forefront of real action. They refused to acknowledge the massive effects of technology change, and the need for quick adoption, and the huge money saving nature of the solution.

I have zero patience for those attitudes now, the difference between a degrowther and a climate change denying politician are minimal in effect, and the effects are all that matter now.

What about energystar? That had significant impact. Remember how we fixed the ozone hole? It’s entirely possible to drive change through policy or community. We just choose not to do it because the Epstein class wants culture war not class war.

Yes, policy does change things!! You give examples where a community got together, changed policy, affecting all of society.

This is precisely the opposite of the disastrous 2020s action, which had no concrete policy demands, which leaned into the culture war. They ceded the ground to the right wing, who does that sort of culture war much better, as they have focused their efforts on it for so long.

With culture war, no policy changes. The fight takes place in vibes.

We need policy, execution in concrete changes of physical things in the real world. That's where Sunrise and XR failed.

I see. Thanks!

The Paris Accords have very specific policy goals. Your criticism is incoherent.

The Paris Accords are the exact opposite of the 2020s movements I criticize, Sunrise and XR.

Another sweeping claim that doesn't actually say anything. How is it the "exact opposite"?

I was very specific in the failings of Sunrise and XR and they contrast greatly with efforts like energy star or the Paris accords, and their members would say they same thing in that they tried something very different.

My comments have been very specific, but you can't manage more than a sentence. Further, you have not even engaged with a single one of my words or statements.

You haven't made any specific claims to engage with, just vague polemics.

I had thought this administration had killed energy star, but it seems like it actually survived. A rare piece of good news:

https://www.npr.org/2026/02/03/nx-s1-5684126/energy-star-tru...

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