4 ms·

Ok, it's a (geo-)political problem. So what do we do now? Besides posting HN comments that is.

by perfunctory 7y ago

LatteLazy 7y ago
You write to your representatives. You vote for greener parties. You donate to green peace etc. None of those things are actually likely to work. But they're infinitely more likely to work that talking about local action and cutting back your meat intake. Sorry if I wasn't clear, this problem is really hard. Likely unsolvably hard. But that doesn't make an impractical solution practical.
- kiliantics 7y ago
  There are effective things you can do but they require coordination with your community. Mass protests and worker strikes can force the hands of governments and big business. There are many historical examples that this works and just look at how much success the French are having right now. But they need to happen at scale and very frequently. Voting only happens once every few years for a reason.
  - LatteLazy 7y ago
    I have to really blunt, I'm sure you're a nice guy/girl/person, and we both would love to see this problem solved but... No, there are no effective things my community can take. None. Even my whole nation has zero actual power. That's the whole point here. I don't know why people keep saying that. Im a limey brit. We have a huge economy, lots of cars and houses, all pouring out co2. But we only produce 1% of world emissions. So even if we cut our emissions to zero today, that would be only 1/8th of the global cut needed just for 2020. Given world co2 emissions are growing at 2.7%, the problem would still be getting worse. Nothing the UK does matters in the face of this issue. And we're one of the bigger, more powerful, more polluting nations. Before we can find an actual solution, we need to stop wasting time and effort pretending this can be solved by communities. It really really can't.

4 ms·

Ok, it's a (geo-)political problem. So what do we do now? Besides posting HN comments that is.

by perfunctory 7y ago

Ok, it's a (geo-)political problem. So what do we do now? Besides posting HN comments that is.

LatteLazy 7y ago
You write to your representatives. You vote for greener parties. You donate to green peace etc. None of those things are actually likely to work. But they're infinitely more likely to work that talking about local action and cutting back your meat intake. Sorry if I wasn't clear, this problem is really hard. Likely unsolvably hard. But that doesn't make an impractical solution practical.
- kiliantics 7y ago
  There are effective things you can do but they require coordination with your community. Mass protests and worker strikes can force the hands of governments and big business. There are many historical examples that this works and just look at how much success the French are having right now. But they need to happen at scale and very frequently. Voting only happens once every few years for a reason.
  - LatteLazy 7y ago
    I have to really blunt, I'm sure you're a nice guy/girl/person, and we both would love to see this problem solved but... No, there are no effective things my community can take. None. Even my whole nation has zero actual power. That's the whole point here. I don't know why people keep saying that. Im a limey brit. We have a huge economy, lots of cars and houses, all pouring out co2. But we only produce 1% of world emissions. So even if we cut our emissions to zero today, that would be only 1/8th of the global cut needed just for 2020. Given world co2 emissions are growing at 2.7%, the problem would still be getting worse. Nothing the UK does matters in the face of this issue. And we're one of the bigger, more powerful, more polluting nations. Before we can find an actual solution, we need to stop wasting time and effort pretending this can be solved by communities. It really really can't.