4 ms·
People hate to admit it, but having a child is the most carbon-intensive thing you can do. Unfortunately, it’s a tragedy of the commons. Enough people act in th
by journalctl 7y ago
People hate to admit it, but having a child is the most carbon-intensive thing you can do. Unfortunately, it’s a tragedy of the commons. Enough people act in their own self-interest to the detriment of everyone. This is uncharted territory for humanity, and I’m afraid we’re not yet up to the task of tackling it. I mean, in a world with scarce food, water, and arable land, yeah, bringing another resource-intensive human being into it starts to have more immediate consequences. I don’t care if it makes people uncomfortable. It’s going to be an issue whether we like it or not.
- cyrksoft 7y agoHow do you propose to fight it? Everybody acts in their self interest all the time.
- richk449 7y agoThe fact that everyone acts in their own self interest is well known. Typically this is countered by some combination of societal mores and laws. Think Moses and “thou shall not steal”. If you want to solve tradgedy of the commons type problems, the two known solutions are privatization and regulation. Nobody has yet thought of a way to privatize the earths climate, so we are pretty much stuck with regulation. That sucks. But the alternative sucks worse.