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It really is starting to feel like the fringe of the environmental movement have really been the bad guys all along. Blocking nuclear starting in the 70s, focus
by aperson_hello 4y ago
It really is starting to feel like the fringe of the environmental movement have really been the bad guys all along. Blocking nuclear starting in the 70s, focusing only on recycling in the 80s and 90s (consumption doesn't matter as long as something could be recycled), blocking natural gas/oil in favor of coal in the 90s-2000s, blocking wind farms ("think of the birds!!"), batteries, and solar panels (too many chemicals/can't be recycled) in the 2010s, and now pushing the plastic straws will kill us all narrative in the 2020s (at the direct expense of the climate narrative).
I'm being a bit hyperbolic here, but only a little bit. It's a decades long story of not seeing the forest for the trees and focusing on minor environmental impacts rather than the big climate issue staring us down. Like, this is exactly the strategy I'd take if my goal were to create as much warming as possible without anyone catching on...
- dclusin 4y agoAdmitting that the decision to continue petroleum production is a cost benefit analysis and we still derive significant benefits from it is a conversation that much more than just the fringe environmentalists are unwilling to have. Had we been able to have these discussions earlier, we would have started working on carbon capture with much more credible allocations sooner.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Schroedingersat 4y agoAh yes. All those PR campaigns that are directly and provably from the fossil fuel and plastic industries are definitely from people who have been saying we should stop using fossil fuels, invest in renewables, and reduce consumption for sixty years whilst being completely ignored.