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Someone has to go first. If not you, then who? Everything starts with someone going first. And your actions do have an effect: by providing an example to other

Someone has to go first. If not you, then who? Everything starts with someone going first. And your actions do have an effect: by providing an example to others, making it more likely they too will participate; and economic, by reducing the income generated from the activity.

ForHackernews 8y ago
Who? The government. Sign a treaty, pass a law, impose loads and loads of CO2 taxes. Impose sanctions on countries that won't fall in line.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Retric 8y ago
1/1,000,000,000 has no meaningful impact on any of those. Silent Spring was written by a Rachel Carson and had real impact. However, her personal lifestyle was irrelevant. PS: As to someone going first, that is not an issue when say a state adds a sales tax. In such cases the first person to pay the tax is a sign that it's already in place.
- rgbrenner 8y ago
  So I take it you don't believe in voting? Voting is nearly as worthless. No one said your singular vote (with your wallet) would change everything. But just like voting you help push things in the right direction. And you can, with additional effort, influence more people to vote the same way as you.
  - mikeash 8y ago
    Voting magnifies the impact of the individual. Consider the impact on the climate of 40,000 people completely eliminating their CO2 emissions. The difference would be impossible to measure, even if it was the top 40,000 emitters on the planet. Maybe you'd push back the time to hit 2 degrees of warming by a day or something. Now consider the impact of the right 40,000 people voting differently in the 2016 US Presidential elections. All sorts of things would look very different, including action being taken to fight climate change. One person can make a difference, by influencing others. But you have to be smart about it. You can't just decide to fly less, and then declare that you're making a difference because one person can make a difference.

ForHackernews 8y ago

Who? The government. Sign a treaty, pass a law, impose loads and loads of CO2 taxes. Impose sanctions on countries that won't fall in line.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Retric 8y ago

1/1,000,000,000 has no meaningful impact on any of those. Silent Spring was written by a Rachel Carson and had real impact. However, her personal lifestyle was irrelevant. PS: As to someone going first, that is not an issue when say a state adds a sales tax. In such cases the first person to pay the tax is a sign that it's already in place.

rgbrenner 8y ago
So I take it you don't believe in voting? Voting is nearly as worthless. No one said your singular vote (with your wallet) would change everything. But just like voting you help push things in the right direction. And you can, with additional effort, influence more people to vote the same way as you.
- mikeash 8y ago
  Voting magnifies the impact of the individual. Consider the impact on the climate of 40,000 people completely eliminating their CO2 emissions. The difference would be impossible to measure, even if it was the top 40,000 emitters on the planet. Maybe you'd push back the time to hit 2 degrees of warming by a day or something. Now consider the impact of the right 40,000 people voting differently in the 2016 US Presidential elections. All sorts of things would look very different, including action being taken to fight climate change. One person can make a difference, by influencing others. But you have to be smart about it. You can't just decide to fly less, and then declare that you're making a difference because one person can make a difference.