4 ms·

I don’t like that many of the climate articles are just alarming and not actionable. So now what? Naming alternatives would be good. Don’t travel ever again? Tr

by baxtr 9y ago

I don’t like that many of the climate articles are just alarming and not actionable. So now what? Naming alternatives would be good. Don’t travel ever again? Travel locally? Hitchhike?

thedevilslawyer 9y ago
It's fine if the article does not have any actionable items. It's fine for an article to just be informative. Reduce international tourism? Sounds completely fine as a potential solution. We survived for 99.99% of our species' and civilization's lifetime without it.
jacobolus 9y ago
You can’t do anything about problems you don’t know exist, and you can’t prioritize systematically without some understanding of where the bottlenecks are. There’s no problem if some researchers exclusively focus their time on discovering and describing problems. Someone else can explore possible solutions. Someone else can try to plan/develop an implementation of each of those. Someone else can work on political advocacy to build support for one or another solution. Etc. It seems you have already brainstormed a few personal steps you could take to combat this problem at an individual level. But that isn’t going to cut it at a societal level. For that we probably need some combination of (a) less carbon-intensive but still convenient modes of transportation, (b) globally implemented carbon taxes [or the like] which force consumers to confront the true costs of their consumption, including plane flights, (c) large-scale public education campaigning, possibly including discouraging the public from traveling halfway around the world multiple times per year, etc.
- baxtr 9y ago
  Ok, good points there. I just feel with climate change: we’re way beyond the information stage there. We all know that the climate is changing and that it is man made. We need action. Action that is feasible on a personal level
  - zachwood 9y ago
    > We all know that the climate is changing and that it is man made. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. We don't even have a clear majority in America. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/ps_2016-10-04_politics-of-climate_1-01/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climat...
ehnto 9y ago
Bicycle travel, backpacking (walking and public transit), buy a used sailboat. You might be surprised how far a bicycle actually takes you in a day. I wish local travel got the same attention and appeal as international travel as well. Depending on where you live of course. But America and Australia at least are wildly varying lands, with myriad ecosystems within their respective continents.

by baxtr 9y ago

I don’t like that many of the climate articles are just alarming and not actionable. So now what? Naming alternatives would be good. Don’t travel ever again? Travel locally? Hitchhike?

thedevilslawyer 9y ago

It's fine if the article does not have any actionable items. It's fine for an article to just be informative. Reduce international tourism? Sounds completely fine as a potential solution. We survived for 99.99% of our species' and civilization's lifetime without it.

jacobolus 9y ago

You can’t do anything about problems you don’t know exist, and you can’t prioritize systematically without some understanding of where the bottlenecks are. There’s no problem if some researchers exclusively focus their time on discovering and describing problems. Someone else can explore possible solutions. Someone else can try to plan/develop an implementation of each of those. Someone else can work on political advocacy to build support for one or another solution. Etc. It seems you have already brainstormed a few personal steps you could take to combat this problem at an individual level. But that isn’t going to cut it at a societal level. For that we probably need some combination of (a) less carbon-intensive but still convenient modes of transportation, (b) globally implemented carbon taxes [or the like] which force consumers to confront the true costs of their consumption, including plane flights, (c) large-scale public education campaigning, possibly including discouraging the public from traveling halfway around the world multiple times per year, etc.

baxtr 9y ago
Ok, good points there. I just feel with climate change: we’re way beyond the information stage there. We all know that the climate is changing and that it is man made. We need action. Action that is feasible on a personal level
- zachwood 9y ago
  > We all know that the climate is changing and that it is man made. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case. We don't even have a clear majority in America. http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/ps_2016-10-04_politics-of-climate_1-01/ http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climat...

ehnto 9y ago

Bicycle travel, backpacking (walking and public transit), buy a used sailboat. You might be surprised how far a bicycle actually takes you in a day. I wish local travel got the same attention and appeal as international travel as well. Depending on where you live of course. But America and Australia at least are wildly varying lands, with myriad ecosystems within their respective continents.