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It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but still own two cars,
by stcredzero 9y ago
It's not the handful of climate change deniers that's the problem. It's the overwhelming number of people who want to say they're green, but still own two cars, never take public transport, eat meat daily, live in big houses, and buy buy buy.
Given the evidence of all of recorded history and archaeological evidence, how is the denial of economics any better than climate change denial? We have many, many examples of environmental changes combined with misaligned incentives bringing about the end of many civilizations.
(Just one example, for which new media exists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkMP328eU5Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkMP328eU5Q )
As another HN commenter on this post noted, you can't overturn people's incentives through moralizing about some abstract fear. Even when pursuing an obvious course of justice, Gandhi knew that you must align with people's day to day incentives. It does no one good to rail against the stupidity of the masses and the greed of corporations. We need to figure out how to align everyone's incentives.
- anigbrowl 9y agoyou can't, in the short term. There are no good long-term solutions that are not going to cause some acute pain in the short term. Deep down everyone knows this, and the increasing viciousness of politics is, under the surface debates, a fight over who is going to have to bear that pain and to what degree.
- stcredzero 9y agoYou can align market forces. It's going to be a hard sell working against entrenched interests, however. https://www.ted.com/talks/ted_halstead_a_climate_solution_where_all_sides_can_win?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/ted_halstead_a_climate_solution_wh...