You're mixing analyses. "burning coal" and "electricity" are not an activity. They are transformation methods to obtain energy. Nobody generates electricity or

You're mixing analyses. "burning coal" and "electricity" are not an activity. They are transformation methods to obtain energy. Nobody generates electricity or burns coal for the intrinsic purpose; those transformations generate energy that are used for activities. Those activities can however be reduced or substituted, and that is where we can find solutions. Some methods for reducing the impact of transporting containers by ship: * optimize (logistically, more efficient motors, capture wind energy) * substitute (produce / consume more locally) * reduce (consume less / differently) .. of course all of those are more expensive and less practical. I feel this is something that is often forgotten in public debate. Mass consumption, abundance and middle-class comfort are not a human right. Having a non-messed up planet, is. Behind your question is an implicit suggestion that you are willing to compromise, but only if it does not impact you, and that in the end, your and my children's future is subservient to our generation being able to consume cheaply and easily. This notion has already reached the German high courts, that have ruled that the state is currently failing to protect the safety of future generations. I have been reading a lot lately on distributed and generational guilt, specifically how Germans and Japanese were not able to collectively act when their respective governments derailed and people where being beat up in the streets. And how their children regarded them. And I am starting to think that we in the same position. We, society at large, know that what we are doing is endangering our collective future, and have known now for 20 or 30 years (the intellectual elite has known so since the 70's). Some of us are speaking out, but we sit back while our governments are inactive and empirical proof of a grim future is piling up. My oldest son (10) was crying the other week, because this last hot summer has driven home for him, and many others with him, how life will inexorably change in the coming decades. How will his generation and their children remember us? Like the Germans that knew, but didn't act? Or like responsible adults that did not act in a selfish manner.