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“rational self-interested thinking is what got us into this mess” therefore the solution is “you guys should all elect good politicians and be motivated by my a

“rational self-interested thinking is what got us into this mess” therefore the solution is “you guys should all elect good politicians and be motivated by my altruism” Honestly, I wouldn’t trust that solution further than I can throw it. I absolutely want effective climate solutions people can pursue out of greed. Then I can believe in them! Not because I like greed but because I trust it. Do you see what I mean?

hnlmorg 4y ago
We’ve had more than a hundred years of industry and it has been demonstrated time and time again that greed doesn’t fuel positive change when it comes to matters of the environment. Greed only leads to greenwashing (on phone so no citation but you can look the term up - ostensibly it’s where companies run PR campaigns to promote greenness while not actually doing much, if anything, to improve the situation). Examples of this are carbon offsetting instead of reducing the carbon they use, recycling campaigns instead of actually using less environmentally harmful packaging. The “right thing” here is always more expensive. This is a trend we’ve already seen for decades. Why should it suddenly be different now? I’m not saying politicians can be trusted either but at least politicians goals aren’t contradictory to environmental concerns, unlike greed vs environmentally sympathetic products that generally cost more to produce. And here lies the problem: companies can’t be trusted to do the right thing for the environment because it costs more for them to do so. And if there is one thing we should have learned by now it’s that most companies will gladly take shortcuts if it raises their profits and/or share value. Asking readers of HN to trust businesses to do the right thing is like repeatedly approaching a barking dog after getting bitten multiple times thinking “this time I’m positive the dog won’t bite me”. At some point you have to set boundaries otherwise they’ll continue to misbehave knowing they can always get away with it.

hnlmorg 4y ago

We’ve had more than a hundred years of industry and it has been demonstrated time and time again that greed doesn’t fuel positive change when it comes to matters of the environment. Greed only leads to greenwashing (on phone so no citation but you can look the term up - ostensibly it’s where companies run PR campaigns to promote greenness while not actually doing much, if anything, to improve the situation). Examples of this are carbon offsetting instead of reducing the carbon they use, recycling campaigns instead of actually using less environmentally harmful packaging. The “right thing” here is always more expensive. This is a trend we’ve already seen for decades. Why should it suddenly be different now? I’m not saying politicians can be trusted either but at least politicians goals aren’t contradictory to environmental concerns, unlike greed vs environmentally sympathetic products that generally cost more to produce. And here lies the problem: companies can’t be trusted to do the right thing for the environment because it costs more for them to do so. And if there is one thing we should have learned by now it’s that most companies will gladly take shortcuts if it raises their profits and/or share value. Asking readers of HN to trust businesses to do the right thing is like repeatedly approaching a barking dog after getting bitten multiple times thinking “this time I’m positive the dog won’t bite me”. At some point you have to set boundaries otherwise they’ll continue to misbehave knowing they can always get away with it.