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What worries me the most is that some day, a mad billionaire will decide to implement such measures without anyone's approval. That's why we need to reform the
by jongjong 4y ago
What worries me the most is that some day, a mad billionaire will decide to implement such measures without anyone's approval. That's why we need to reform the system such that it is impossible for anyone to be a billionaire. Nobody should have the resources or power to unilaterally transform the earth without majority consensus.
The problem must be solved at the individual level. We need an efficient economic system which gives individuals enough financial surplus such that they can afford to start worrying about such issues as climate change.
Most people are too busy trying to survive the next day to even think about such long term issues as climate change. It became the elites' problem because nobody else has the surplus resources necessary to do anything about it... Even though the problem would be far easier to solve on an individual basis if each individual was responsible for negating or offsetting their own environmental impact.
- chrismartin 4y agoWhat do people do when they have more money? You think they'll be eager to spend it on insulation retrofits and ground-source heat pumps? In our fossil fuel-powered economy, I think they'll buy more stuff and travel more, and most of those activities will increase GHG emissions. I'm not arguing against measures to decrease wealth inequality. But is the sum of (potentially richer) individuals' actions likely to address climate change in a better way than a hypothetical billionaire's geoengineering project? I'm not convinced in either direction.
- joenot443 4y agoA lot of people feel the same way about nation states in which one actor can make decisions which unilaterally transform the earth without majority consensus. The world actually has a long history of political leaders making short-sighted decisions which affected generations to come, can you think of times an individual billionaire has done the same? I'm personally much more concerned with the concentrated individual power of the likes of Putin or Xi than I am of Buffet or Gates.
- jongjong 4y agoI would definitely prefer governments to be made up of small autonomous city states with a simple NATO-like 'An attack against one is an attack against all' clause to maintain peace.