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Anyone even vaguely familiar with the science understands that we need to cut emissions on a wide scale, and that air travel by a few hundred politicians is a m
by NationalPark 5y ago
Anyone even vaguely familiar with the science understands that we need to cut emissions on a wide scale, and that air travel by a few hundred politicians is a meaninglessly small fraction of the actual problem. This is essentially a bad faith attack on the few people in congress trying to do something about climate change. Where is your ire for the dozens of Republican congressmen who don't believe climate change is real or believe the Christian end times will happen first? Please, be serious and don't engage in contrarian purity tests that only serve to set back our attempts at mitigation.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kbelder 5y agoHow about your and mine air travel? Meaninglessly small fraction of the actual problem?
- NationalPark 5y agoIndeed, commercial aviation is only something like 3% of overall carbon dioxide emissions globally. If you want to make a personal difference you would be an order of magnitude more effective if you stop commuting in a non-electric car or gave up consuming meat when dining in restaurants. Expecting individual action to fix this (or worse, blaming individual actions for it) isn't going to work though. Individual consumption is not the majority source of emissions, and it's a bit of a classic prisoners dilemma problem anyway, and we know how much Americans trust each other these days.
- mistermann 5y agoAre you taking the human/mass psychology apect (which underlies human actions) of the problem into consideration?
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago> Anyone even vaguely familiar with the science understands that we need to cut emissions on a wide scale, and that air travel by a few hundred politicians is a meaninglessly small fraction of the actual problem. This is essentially a bad faith attack on the few people in congress trying to do something about climate change. The post you replied to isn't talking about the science, but rather the politics. Humans tend to respond badly to authority figures saying but not doing, and this is a real problem that we need to fix (by electing/creating better leaders) in order to meet the requirements of the moment. So yeah, the total Congress emissions are tiny scientifically, but they're rather large politically. Also, someone I once read highlighted that political polarisation increased when Reps could fly back home every weekend. Maybe one should require that Senators maintain their primary residence in D.C.?
- tharne 5y ago> Where is your ire for the dozens of Republican congressmen who don't believe climate change is real or believe the Christian end times will happen first? Oh, it's there, believe me. Just wasn't part of that particular post.
- equality_1138 5y agoMany would say our political economy is built on insatiable consumption, and is therefore incapable of cutting emissions to such a scale to materially impact climate change. It makes no sense to blame 'Republicans' and/or 'Christians' for not trusting every proposed solution to these massively complex problems.
- NationalPark 5y agoIt's not that they "don't trust every proposed solution". It's that they do not believe the problem is real, and therefore do not trust any solution.
- equality_1138 5y agoIt could be that when someone doesn't trust your solution, you call them out for not believing in the problem. Logical fallacy.
- lazyasciiart 5y agoOr it could be that they say "climate change isn't real" in exactly those words.
- equality_1138 5y agoAnother problem is when so many people take a politician's words at face value. It simply doesn't work like that.
- lazyasciiart 5y agoFirst, this isn't limited to politicians. Second, calling it a logical fallacy to believe what others say about themselves is utterly ridiculous and doesn't move goal posts so much as it pretends there are invisible goal posts swooping around the field at will and only you can know if the ball goes in.
- inglor_cz 5y ago"Do as I say, not as I do" is terrible politics. Politics is about leading other humans, in this case leading them to make less comfortable choices.