3 ms·

Blaming climate change on the "greed" of oil companies seems to me just a way to avoid taking personal responsibility for one's own choices as a consumer. You

by arbuge 5y ago

Blaming climate change on the "greed" of oil companies seems to me just a way to avoid taking personal responsibility for one's own choices as a consumer. You really can't drive a massive SUV where a smaller vehicle or even a bike might work perfectly well and then yell at Exxon about their greed.

Tijdreiziger 5y ago
And you can't ride a bicycle or train where the infrastructure doesn't exist because of pro-car lobbying by the oil companies, and then yell at individuals about their 'personal responsibility'.
- arbuge 5y ago
  I'm going to hazard a wild guess here that there's a lot more pro-car lobbying going on by the car companies than there is by the oil companies.
throwaway894345 5y ago
1. Consumers don't have access to information they need to make climate-optimal decisions. 2. Oil companies lobby hard to make sure people lack the aforementioned information, specifically downplaying climate change. 3. SUVs are not even a drop in the ocean compared to industrial emissions. You're reaching hard to blame consumers for what is transparently industry's fault. We need to pass carbon pricing and decarbonize our energy sector.
- arbuge 5y ago
  Regarding 1 & 2, I think there's more than enough information out there at this point for anyone to figure out that large SUVs are worse than smaller vehicles or bicycles for the environment, regardless of whatever lobbying is going on by oil companies. Regarding #3, I don't know if your first statement is correct or not, but again it would seem to me that the consumer (industries in this case) would have their own share of responsibility, not just the oil & gas companies supplying them.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    > Regarding 1 & 2, I think there's more than enough information out there at this point for anyone to figure out that large SUVs are worse than smaller vehicles or bicycles for the environment That's neither disputed nor relevant. If SUVs were replaced with Toyota Corolas overnight, the climate situation would be negligibly better. > it would seem to me that the consumer (industries in this case) would have their own share of responsibility, not just the oil & gas companies supplying them. Oil and gas companies are faulted for obstructing efforts to change the status quo (lobbying and disinformation campaigns), not for supplying energy to their consumers. Most importantly, we need to pass carbon pricing legislation (with border adjustments) so that consumers at every point in the supply chain can reason effectively about (and share incentives which are aligned with) the environment. Here's a site that makes it trivial to write your legislator: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/house/ https://citizensclimatelobby.org/house/

by arbuge 5y ago

Tijdreiziger 5y ago

And you can't ride a bicycle or train where the infrastructure doesn't exist because of pro-car lobbying by the oil companies, and then yell at individuals about their 'personal responsibility'.

arbuge 5y ago
I'm going to hazard a wild guess here that there's a lot more pro-car lobbying going on by the car companies than there is by the oil companies.

throwaway894345 5y ago

1. Consumers don't have access to information they need to make climate-optimal decisions. 2. Oil companies lobby hard to make sure people lack the aforementioned information, specifically downplaying climate change. 3. SUVs are not even a drop in the ocean compared to industrial emissions. You're reaching hard to blame consumers for what is transparently industry's fault. We need to pass carbon pricing and decarbonize our energy sector.

arbuge 5y ago
Regarding 1 & 2, I think there's more than enough information out there at this point for anyone to figure out that large SUVs are worse than smaller vehicles or bicycles for the environment, regardless of whatever lobbying is going on by oil companies. Regarding #3, I don't know if your first statement is correct or not, but again it would seem to me that the consumer (industries in this case) would have their own share of responsibility, not just the oil & gas companies supplying them.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  > Regarding 1 & 2, I think there's more than enough information out there at this point for anyone to figure out that large SUVs are worse than smaller vehicles or bicycles for the environment That's neither disputed nor relevant. If SUVs were replaced with Toyota Corolas overnight, the climate situation would be negligibly better. > it would seem to me that the consumer (industries in this case) would have their own share of responsibility, not just the oil & gas companies supplying them. Oil and gas companies are faulted for obstructing efforts to change the status quo (lobbying and disinformation campaigns), not for supplying energy to their consumers. Most importantly, we need to pass carbon pricing legislation (with border adjustments) so that consumers at every point in the supply chain can reason effectively about (and share incentives which are aligned with) the environment. Here's a site that makes it trivial to write your legislator: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/house/ https://citizensclimatelobby.org/house/