5 ms·

Any ideas of What, WE, the individuals can do to make politician and countries change?

disordinary 7y ago
Just a ground swell at the local level, cities all around the world are calling climate emergencies including all the main cities in New Zealand. The NZ government will have to follow suit. Bigger cities are following too including New York and Sydney today.
- helenakyso 7y ago
  But I think that by the time the government start making changes, it will be too late, as it is too late now. Like humanity must have a dramatic change - from top to bottom. The system is against the world We live in a finite world consuming like it is infinite Every action counts, but it will be hard and it must be super reinforced by law
  - disordinary 7y ago
    Well, depending on where you are you can also vote for the local green party. If you're in a proportional election system then that the bigger the green voting block is the better. If you're in a country with a first-past-the-post electoral system like the US, UK, or Australia then things are much tougher and you should also be campaigning for electoral reform to make your country more democratic.
    - arethuza 7y ago
      The UK had a referendum on introducing a different voting system and there was no change as the general view seemed to be that "first past the post" gave strong governments.
      - disordinary 7y ago
        Yeah, I wouldn't call the current British government strong but I would call the past six NZ governments strong. Each of those governments have been made up of at least three parties working together. The Australian electoral system is first past the post too and is similarly as chaotic as the UK.
    - polotics 7y ago
      Assuming your local green party representative doesn't think that shutting down a safe nuclear power plant has higher priority than CO2/Methane...
    - cam_l 7y ago
      Note Australia is not first past the post. It is preferential. In practice this probably means you feel more like your vote matters, but eventually goes to one of the major parties.
adrianN 7y ago
Take to the streets, join Extinction Rebellion or something similar. At least talk to your representatives and vote.
tomtomtom777 7y ago
Stop buying stuff without thought. I know that a lot of people feel helpless because it's the big corporations that are emitting, but companies only emit CO2 if consumers pay them to do so. Buying everything consciously, whether its food, appliances, housing, or a ticket to some performance, will make the world better.
- reallydontask 7y ago
  This is a pretty good idea but it needs a lot of people doing it. We're in the process of moving home and putting everything into boxes makes one realize how much crap one has bought unnecessarily. We're on a relatively special case in that we've only recently moved (18 months ago) so we actually have stuff that has never been used in our current house. A lot of this stuff has been donated to charity and some tossed but still my gf wants to take some stuff that hasn't been used in at least 18 months to the new house. I am excluding Tools and camping gear from the list. The former for obvious reasons, the latter due to having recently had a baby we've not been camping for a bit, YMMV
  - lm28469 7y ago
    > This is a pretty good idea but it needs a lot of people doing it. There is no way out of this that doesn't involve a "lot of people doing" something. Our lifestyles are just not sustainable.
- helenakyso 7y ago
  The problem is that the current society and economic system are "forcing" us to buy/have more and more thing on cheaper prices at any environmental costs.
  - GoblinSlayer 7y ago
    It only convinces, doesn't force.
- maxheadroom 7y ago
  I would also like to add that some countries could contribute more by offering public transit infrastructure (like, at all - looking at you "deep south of the United States", where cities don't have any transit systems, whatsoever) and encouraging/subsidising/what-have-you of far more rail use than plane use. Essentially, you're never going to drive car use down (and, thereby, fossil fuel use), if there are no viable alternatives than using a car and the poorest areas can't afford to "catch-up" to the electic vehicle trend[s]. Yes, the effect might be miniscule, compared to the output of CO^2 by businesses, but every little bit helps - when deforestation continues in the Amazon (e.g.: "the world's lungs") and we're not planting enough trees (anywhere) to counter-act that.
perfunctory 7y ago
https://globalclimatestrike.net https://globalclimatestrike.net
H8crilA 7y ago
Make sure your assets are shielded from the consequences. I'm a strong believer in voting with legs. For example - it's insane how the Miami real estate prices ignore what's going on (they even have a cheerful name - "sunny day floods"): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MIXRNSA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MIXRNSA Just sell it already! There's nothing good waiting for Miami, the city will die. Rent if you really want to stay till it blows up. As far as stocks go many companies do not publish data on how climate change will impact them. But they probably will, soon, and ETFs will follow suit: https://www.economist.com/business/2019/02/21/business-and-the-effects-of-global-warming https://www.economist.com/business/2019/02/21/business-and-t... Of course for the worst case scenario (hundreds of millions of refugees from dried up / flooded places) no assets management strategy will help, as this will be a world-war impact event.
- avip 7y ago
  Minor correction: hundreds of millions of refugees is the best case scenario in the UN climate refugees projection.
  - H8crilA 7y ago
    By worst case I meant that warming is not stopped. There are scenarios under which it will be stopped, most likely one is solar geo-engineering.
- southern_cross 7y ago
  The flooding that is (was?) occurring in Miami was largely the result of a poorly designed rain-drain system, one which was installed with little to no back-flow prevention. This new system, which was put in place into allow rainwater to flow into the ocean more easily and so prevent flash flooding, unfortunately also allowed the ocean to easily flow back into the streets when conditions were right and so caused tidal flooding instead. This was all covered in detail in the press at the time the problem first started occurring, and of course it made everyone involved look really bad. But then someone came up with "climate change" as the cause instead, so now the guilty parties had something to hide behind. The press had a field day with it, too, using it as "proof" of dangerously rising sea levels. The attempted solution here (which is why I said "was?") was to install drainage pumps much like the type you find in New Orleans, because apparently going back and adding the proper back-flow prevention devices was going to be too involved and too expensive. But, of course, just as soon as those pumps were activated people started complaining about how they were polluting the ocean. In fact, they probably aren't putting anything into the ocean that wasn't already going there eventually anyway; they just made the situation more obvious.
avip 7y ago
Immigrate to a safe country.
- helenakyso 7y ago
  if the safe place let you migrate
ForHackernews 7y ago
You have to be loud and get in the faces of your politicians. Be a single-issue climate voter, go protest, sit-in at legislators offices, jam up their phone lines. https://rebellion.earth/ https://rebellion.earth/ https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ Really, it's stupid, but if the politicians can ignore you, they will. You have to make it so they can't ignore you.
jsingleton 7y ago
A few idea for individuals in this community. https://climateaction.tech/ https://climateaction.tech/ https://techimpactmakers.com/ https://techimpactmakers.com/ https://fixathon.io/ https://fixathon.io/ <-- looking for sponsorship if any tech companies are feeling generous (https://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor https://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
realreality 7y ago
Individuals can do very little, aside from reducing one's ecological footprint. The key thing is to work with your neighbors, friends, and community to build on the movements that are already working to make politicians and countries change. This must be a collective effort.

Just a ground swell at the local level, cities all around the world are calling climate emergencies including all the main cities in New Zealand. The NZ government will have to follow suit. Bigger cities are following too including New York and Sydney today.

helenakyso 7y ago
But I think that by the time the government start making changes, it will be too late, as it is too late now. Like humanity must have a dramatic change - from top to bottom. The system is against the world We live in a finite world consuming like it is infinite Every action counts, but it will be hard and it must be super reinforced by law
- disordinary 7y ago
  Well, depending on where you are you can also vote for the local green party. If you're in a proportional election system then that the bigger the green voting block is the better. If you're in a country with a first-past-the-post electoral system like the US, UK, or Australia then things are much tougher and you should also be campaigning for electoral reform to make your country more democratic.
  - arethuza 7y ago
    The UK had a referendum on introducing a different voting system and there was no change as the general view seemed to be that "first past the post" gave strong governments.
    - disordinary 7y ago
      Yeah, I wouldn't call the current British government strong but I would call the past six NZ governments strong. Each of those governments have been made up of at least three parties working together. The Australian electoral system is first past the post too and is similarly as chaotic as the UK.
  - polotics 7y ago
    Assuming your local green party representative doesn't think that shutting down a safe nuclear power plant has higher priority than CO2/Methane...
  - cam_l 7y ago
    Note Australia is not first past the post. It is preferential. In practice this probably means you feel more like your vote matters, but eventually goes to one of the major parties.

adrianN 7y ago

Take to the streets, join Extinction Rebellion or something similar. At least talk to your representatives and vote.

tomtomtom777 7y ago

Stop buying stuff without thought. I know that a lot of people feel helpless because it's the big corporations that are emitting, but companies only emit CO2 if consumers pay them to do so. Buying everything consciously, whether its food, appliances, housing, or a ticket to some performance, will make the world better.

reallydontask 7y ago
This is a pretty good idea but it needs a lot of people doing it. We're in the process of moving home and putting everything into boxes makes one realize how much crap one has bought unnecessarily. We're on a relatively special case in that we've only recently moved (18 months ago) so we actually have stuff that has never been used in our current house. A lot of this stuff has been donated to charity and some tossed but still my gf wants to take some stuff that hasn't been used in at least 18 months to the new house. I am excluding Tools and camping gear from the list. The former for obvious reasons, the latter due to having recently had a baby we've not been camping for a bit, YMMV
- lm28469 7y ago
  > This is a pretty good idea but it needs a lot of people doing it. There is no way out of this that doesn't involve a "lot of people doing" something. Our lifestyles are just not sustainable.
helenakyso 7y ago
The problem is that the current society and economic system are "forcing" us to buy/have more and more thing on cheaper prices at any environmental costs.
- GoblinSlayer 7y ago
  It only convinces, doesn't force.
maxheadroom 7y ago
I would also like to add that some countries could contribute more by offering public transit infrastructure (like, at all - looking at you "deep south of the United States", where cities don't have any transit systems, whatsoever) and encouraging/subsidising/what-have-you of far more rail use than plane use. Essentially, you're never going to drive car use down (and, thereby, fossil fuel use), if there are no viable alternatives than using a car and the poorest areas can't afford to "catch-up" to the electic vehicle trend[s]. Yes, the effect might be miniscule, compared to the output of CO^2 by businesses, but every little bit helps - when deforestation continues in the Amazon (e.g.: "the world's lungs") and we're not planting enough trees (anywhere) to counter-act that.

perfunctory 7y ago

https://globalclimatestrike.net https://globalclimatestrike.net

H8crilA 7y ago

Make sure your assets are shielded from the consequences. I'm a strong believer in voting with legs. For example - it's insane how the Miami real estate prices ignore what's going on (they even have a cheerful name - "sunny day floods"): https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MIXRNSA https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MIXRNSA Just sell it already! There's nothing good waiting for Miami, the city will die. Rent if you really want to stay till it blows up. As far as stocks go many companies do not publish data on how climate change will impact them. But they probably will, soon, and ETFs will follow suit: https://www.economist.com/business/2019/02/21/business-and-the-effects-of-global-warming https://www.economist.com/business/2019/02/21/business-and-t... Of course for the worst case scenario (hundreds of millions of refugees from dried up / flooded places) no assets management strategy will help, as this will be a world-war impact event.

avip 7y ago
Minor correction: hundreds of millions of refugees is the best case scenario in the UN climate refugees projection.
- H8crilA 7y ago
  By worst case I meant that warming is not stopped. There are scenarios under which it will be stopped, most likely one is solar geo-engineering.
southern_cross 7y ago
The flooding that is (was?) occurring in Miami was largely the result of a poorly designed rain-drain system, one which was installed with little to no back-flow prevention. This new system, which was put in place into allow rainwater to flow into the ocean more easily and so prevent flash flooding, unfortunately also allowed the ocean to easily flow back into the streets when conditions were right and so caused tidal flooding instead. This was all covered in detail in the press at the time the problem first started occurring, and of course it made everyone involved look really bad. But then someone came up with "climate change" as the cause instead, so now the guilty parties had something to hide behind. The press had a field day with it, too, using it as "proof" of dangerously rising sea levels. The attempted solution here (which is why I said "was?") was to install drainage pumps much like the type you find in New Orleans, because apparently going back and adding the proper back-flow prevention devices was going to be too involved and too expensive. But, of course, just as soon as those pumps were activated people started complaining about how they were polluting the ocean. In fact, they probably aren't putting anything into the ocean that wasn't already going there eventually anyway; they just made the situation more obvious.

avip 7y ago

Immigrate to a safe country.

helenakyso 7y ago
if the safe place let you migrate

ForHackernews 7y ago

You have to be loud and get in the faces of your politicians. Be a single-issue climate voter, go protest, sit-in at legislators offices, jam up their phone lines. https://rebellion.earth/ https://rebellion.earth/ https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ https://www.sunrisemovement.org/ Really, it's stupid, but if the politicians can ignore you, they will. You have to make it so they can't ignore you.

jsingleton 7y ago

A few idea for individuals in this community. https://climateaction.tech/ https://climateaction.tech/ https://techimpactmakers.com/ https://techimpactmakers.com/ https://fixathon.io/ https://fixathon.io/ <-- looking for sponsorship if any tech companies are feeling generous (https://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor https://bit.ly/fixathon-sponsor)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

realreality 7y ago

Individuals can do very little, aside from reducing one's ecological footprint. The key thing is to work with your neighbors, friends, and community to build on the movements that are already working to make politicians and countries change. This must be a collective effort.