4 ms·

>Individual choice has a very small role in climate change. Only if you offload moral culpability onto third parties that are acting on your behalf. You'd pr

>Individual choice has a very small role in climate change. Only if you offload moral culpability onto third parties that are acting on your behalf. You'd probably say you aren't responsible for the climate change due to power companies that use coal instead of green energy. But I'd argue you are responsible for any non-essential energy use since you know they are going to burn coal to generate it. If you turn on an air conditioner when your home is cooler than 95 degrees, that carbon usage is 100% on you. Same goes for agriculture. If you stopped buying meat, they'd stop producing meat for you. If your point is that the masses won't make those trade offs voluntarily, you are probably right. But the point of the article is that its entirely unconvincing to say society must reduce our standard of living by force when you won't do it voluntarily.

kanox 6y ago
> its entirely unconvincing to say society must reduce our standard of living by force when you won't do it voluntarily. I think that "reducing standards of living by force" is an extremist position and it's unhelpful to even bring it up. Switching electricity generation and transport towards renewables can have large impacts on CO2 emissions with very low impact on standards of living. Carbon taxes would raise some bills but the effect is much less than (for example) stopping air conditioning.
- rayiner 6y ago
  > I think that "reducing standards of living by force" is an extremist position and it's unhelpful to even bring it up. We're already doing that. But it's not close to being enough. Emissions need to be halved by 2030 to keep to 1.5C warming: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-emissions/emissions-need-to-be-halved-to-avoid-3c-warming-scientists-idUSKCN1TK0WM https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-emissions/.... The recent economic shut-down from Covid-19 cut U.S. emissions by just 1/3 for one week in April: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/19/coronavirus-has-caused-whopping-17-drop-global-carbon-emissions/5219885002 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/19/corona....
- rhino369 6y ago
  Waiting until green energy is cost efficient is certainly a position on climate change, but it's not one that climate activists typically take. A carbon tax that doesn't raise cost much is not going to have much effect. Though that depends on how you interpret "much." If you double energy cost, upper middle class folks won't change their thermostat, but work class folks won't be able to afford to turn on their AC.
  - JamesBarney 6y ago
    > Though that depends on how you interpret "much." If you double energy cost, upper middle class folks won't change their thermostat, but work class folks won't be able to afford to turn on their AC. Most plans I've seen that involve an energy tax involve moving that money back to the working class via reduced taxes or rebates.

kanox 6y ago

> its entirely unconvincing to say society must reduce our standard of living by force when you won't do it voluntarily. I think that "reducing standards of living by force" is an extremist position and it's unhelpful to even bring it up. Switching electricity generation and transport towards renewables can have large impacts on CO2 emissions with very low impact on standards of living. Carbon taxes would raise some bills but the effect is much less than (for example) stopping air conditioning.

rayiner 6y ago
> I think that "reducing standards of living by force" is an extremist position and it's unhelpful to even bring it up. We're already doing that. But it's not close to being enough. Emissions need to be halved by 2030 to keep to 1.5C warming: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-emissions/emissions-need-to-be-halved-to-avoid-3c-warming-scientists-idUSKCN1TK0WM https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-emissions/.... The recent economic shut-down from Covid-19 cut U.S. emissions by just 1/3 for one week in April: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/19/coronavirus-has-caused-whopping-17-drop-global-carbon-emissions/5219885002 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/05/19/corona....
rhino369 6y ago
Waiting until green energy is cost efficient is certainly a position on climate change, but it's not one that climate activists typically take. A carbon tax that doesn't raise cost much is not going to have much effect. Though that depends on how you interpret "much." If you double energy cost, upper middle class folks won't change their thermostat, but work class folks won't be able to afford to turn on their AC.
- JamesBarney 6y ago
  > Though that depends on how you interpret "much." If you double energy cost, upper middle class folks won't change their thermostat, but work class folks won't be able to afford to turn on their AC. Most plans I've seen that involve an energy tax involve moving that money back to the working class via reduced taxes or rebates.