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Private jets are completely irrelevant to global warming because there are not enough of them. They’re a convenient distraction from the problem that actually
by avalys 5y ago
Private jets are completely irrelevant to global warming because there are not enough of them.
They’re a convenient distraction from the problem that actually curbing global warming will require huge changes in the lifestyle of the global middle class. Not just the super-rich.
- y04nn 5y agoYes, they are probably irrelevant, but how people are going to accept to change their lifestyle when the wealthiest do not, the message sent to the population has not an irrelevant effect I think.
- 7952 5y agoIts all the same CO2. Everyone has to do their bit.
- foobiekr 5y agoFairness and the perception of fairness is not a distraction. If anything, behavior now, where the most privileged who can pay insignificantly more are given a pass, is terribly damaging. It portends a future where only the lower classes shoulder the burden of reductions in quality of life to manage climate change. Which is, of course, what's going to happen.
- AndrewBissell 5y agoNot at all the super-rich seems more like the intended trajectory.
- lamontcg 5y ago> curbing global warming will require huge changes in the lifestyle of the global middle class. Except it won't. It will cause some large industries to cease to exist though.
- FpUser 5y agoIf large industries will cease to exist it will cause big rise in unemployment. This will for sure affect lower and middle classes
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoNot necessarily. It might mean people just shift to different industries.
- mthoms 5y agoMaybe. But even if true, the shift wouldn't be instantaneous. Hence, lots of lower-to-mid timeframe unemployment.
- lamontcg 5y agoIf we could put together a job retraining package and general middle-america bailout package together we could avoid that. But the Democratic constituency is isolated now geographically and across occupations so that they don't get any votes from something like that, and the Republicans will be happy to allow the pain to happen while preventing any support and milking the resentment. So yeah, that's probably what will happen because of our dysfunctional government, but by no means is that an economic certainty.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoBut those industries make the stuff that makes our lifestyle possible.
- rory 5y agoFlights from Paris to Munich are also irrelevant to global warming in isolation, but they don't get a special tax cutout.
- bserge 5y agoWhy are they exempt? It's just blatant power flaunting by the wealthy at this point.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- throwaway894345 5y ago> Private jets are completely irrelevant to global warming because there are not enough of them. They probably are irrelevant, so why exempt them? > actually curbing global warming will require huge changes in the lifestyle of the global middle class. Not just the super-rich. I'm of the impression that "middle class lifestyle" itself isn't a big contributor to global warming but rather the manufacture and supply chains. If we electrify industry and transport, the bulk of the problem goes away (as I understand it) and the effects on the middle class are pretty transparent apart from choices to fund the transition to clean energy (e.g., to what extent does the middle class pay for the transition rather than the super rich). In other words, the average middle class lifestyle isn't significantly impacted by whether their goods are manufactured, refined, transported, etc with clean energy or dirty energy. I get the distinct impression that the "middle class lifestyles will change dramatically" is frequently a euphemism for "we must go full-vegan" by people who are anti-meat. But meat production in the US accounts for only 8% of (co2-equivalent) emissions and those emissions are largely methane and nitrous oxide which dissipate quickly relative to co2 (12 years for methane vs 300-1000 years for co2).
- mbesto 5y ago> itself isn't a big contributor to global warming but rather the manufacture and supply chains. Manufacture and supply chains (and services for that matter) that provide to the middle class. At least that's my interpretation of the parent's point.
- throwaway894345 5y agoRight, and my point is that the middleclass lifestyle doesn't care whether those industries/supply-chains are fueled by solar or fossil fuel.
- orwin 5y agoNo, they doesn't care, but "middleclass lifestyle" is only available for a fifth of the world, and the remaining four fifth want to partake to. And they slowly do. The total installed renewable electricity capacity was greater than the totla installed fossil capacity for the first time in 2020. It was not replacing old fossil capacity, it was just added to the mix. And capacity != production, so i guess it's even worse than that.
- goodpoint 5y ago> Private jets are completely irrelevant Every amount of pollution counts, otherwise we could also claim that a single individual makes 0 difference.
- InitialLastName 5y agoWith 8 billion people, it's difficult to allocate responsibility in a way that doesn't round to zero. Worst kind of tragedy of the commons.
- goodpoint 5y agoOne person accounts for 0.0000000125% of humanity. If we consider such number small enough to be rounded to zero we are implicitly allowing homicide.
- LudwigNagasena 5y agoEvery single flight in isolation is completely irrelevant. So what?
- stjohnswarts 5y agoI don't care, lead by example. We pay taxes on our fuel to be wage slaves for these muckety muck, the least they can do is not ask for handouts.