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Most of the parent's list comes across as "don't live your life, basically", which is not going to convince a majority of people. It could have read as a recomm

Most of the parent's list comes across as "don't live your life, basically", which is not going to convince a majority of people. It could have read as a recommendation to reduce your environmental footprint. "Eat less meat, fly less often, drive an electric car if you can afford to, or bike when you can", etc. But everyone isn't going to just give up all that and go live in a small apartment in the big city.

paulcole 5y ago
> But everyone isn't going to just give up all that and go live in a small apartment in the big city. Some people are going to have to make decisions like the ones I've laid out (it's how I chose to live my life, but not for environmental reasons). If not, that's fine too, but then enjoy the next 50ish years before things get real bad.
- goatlover 5y ago
  The reality is that people are still going to do those things on a global scale regardless of what some people do. Solutions have to take human behavior on a that scale into account. 50 years of thinking about the problem while technology improves and society adapts is reason for hope. Maybe in that time a lot more people will adopt a standard of living you suggest as part of that adaptation (with cities adapted to suit that lifestyle), while renewable energy completely replaces fossil fuels, and things like carbon capture become a reality, along with tree planting initiatives and other ideas being tossed around know to mitigate climate change.
  - paulcole 5y ago
    As I said in my original post: > Whether you choose to do them or rationalize a way to not do them doesn't matter that much My point is that there is no meaningful solution. I present the best individual actions the average HN reader can take. Either do them or don’t. The world 50-75 years from now is going to be unimaginably ugly for a huge number of people who just don’t think it can happen to them (or their kids/grandkids). This is regardless of whether I get on a plane again (I won’t) or whether we start planting trees.

paulcole 5y ago

> But everyone isn't going to just give up all that and go live in a small apartment in the big city. Some people are going to have to make decisions like the ones I've laid out (it's how I chose to live my life, but not for environmental reasons). If not, that's fine too, but then enjoy the next 50ish years before things get real bad.

goatlover 5y ago
The reality is that people are still going to do those things on a global scale regardless of what some people do. Solutions have to take human behavior on a that scale into account. 50 years of thinking about the problem while technology improves and society adapts is reason for hope. Maybe in that time a lot more people will adopt a standard of living you suggest as part of that adaptation (with cities adapted to suit that lifestyle), while renewable energy completely replaces fossil fuels, and things like carbon capture become a reality, along with tree planting initiatives and other ideas being tossed around know to mitigate climate change.
- paulcole 5y ago
  As I said in my original post: > Whether you choose to do them or rationalize a way to not do them doesn't matter that much My point is that there is no meaningful solution. I present the best individual actions the average HN reader can take. Either do them or don’t. The world 50-75 years from now is going to be unimaginably ugly for a huge number of people who just don’t think it can happen to them (or their kids/grandkids). This is regardless of whether I get on a plane again (I won’t) or whether we start planting trees.