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The way you fight is by buying a Tesla and switching your power to clean energy providers. Climate change activists never seem to talk about either of those thi

The way you fight is by buying a Tesla and switching your power to clean energy providers. Climate change activists never seem to talk about either of those things tho, it’s always amorphous nonsense like “dismantling capitalism”

JohnFen 3y ago
> Climate change activists never seem to talk about either of those things tho They don't? You're listening to a different crowd than I am.
jfengel 3y ago
Buying a Tesla isn't even close to enough. Climate change activists say amorphous nonsense like "dismantling capitalism" because the changes needed are much, much further reaching than simply buying a different thing. Transportation is only about 25% of CO2, and cars are only a fraction of that. Even if there were zero CO2 produced in a Tesla's lifecycle (and it's more than that), it wouldn't be anywhere near enough. You'd also need to turn off all the fossil fuel power plants -- which isn't going to happen without government intervention. That's not enough, either. Food and concrete are also massive producers of CO2. Again, corporations aren't going to voluntarily stop raising cows or making concrete. Laws are required -- the kinds of laws that make people scream "socialism". Nor can it end there. To reach net-zero, we're going to have to balance out the inevitable remaining human-produced CO2. Some of that will be carbon capture -- not something corporations do unless forced. Some will be reserving large swathes of fertile land for trees -- probably owned by the government, i.e. socialism. That's probably still not enough. Try this on for size: we eliminate a lot of bullshit jobs that require commuting, energy, and other sources of carbon. Maybe a universal basic income that drives up the cost of workers, and a lot of workers just drop the hell out. Maybe then we reorganize the economy to stop maximizing "employment" as a fundamental goal, and we stop optimizing for total Gross Domestic Product. That is what "dismantling capitalism" means. Maybe it's not necessary to go that far. It sure as hell would have been less likely if we'd done something about it 40 years ago. Instead, we dicked around for decades, while believing that capitalism would solve it. Capitalism mostly responded by denying that the problem existed. The activists may not really understand what they say when they toss around the catch phrases. But I assure you that the people who coined those catch phrases do know what they mean, and you can engage with that if you don't like engaging with the rank-and-file who are rightfully enraged that nothing is being done, even if they themselves don't fully understand the magnitude or direction of what's required.

JohnFen 3y ago

> Climate change activists never seem to talk about either of those things tho They don't? You're listening to a different crowd than I am.

jfengel 3y ago

Buying a Tesla isn't even close to enough. Climate change activists say amorphous nonsense like "dismantling capitalism" because the changes needed are much, much further reaching than simply buying a different thing. Transportation is only about 25% of CO2, and cars are only a fraction of that. Even if there were zero CO2 produced in a Tesla's lifecycle (and it's more than that), it wouldn't be anywhere near enough. You'd also need to turn off all the fossil fuel power plants -- which isn't going to happen without government intervention. That's not enough, either. Food and concrete are also massive producers of CO2. Again, corporations aren't going to voluntarily stop raising cows or making concrete. Laws are required -- the kinds of laws that make people scream "socialism". Nor can it end there. To reach net-zero, we're going to have to balance out the inevitable remaining human-produced CO2. Some of that will be carbon capture -- not something corporations do unless forced. Some will be reserving large swathes of fertile land for trees -- probably owned by the government, i.e. socialism. That's probably still not enough. Try this on for size: we eliminate a lot of bullshit jobs that require commuting, energy, and other sources of carbon. Maybe a universal basic income that drives up the cost of workers, and a lot of workers just drop the hell out. Maybe then we reorganize the economy to stop maximizing "employment" as a fundamental goal, and we stop optimizing for total Gross Domestic Product. That is what "dismantling capitalism" means. Maybe it's not necessary to go that far. It sure as hell would have been less likely if we'd done something about it 40 years ago. Instead, we dicked around for decades, while believing that capitalism would solve it. Capitalism mostly responded by denying that the problem existed. The activists may not really understand what they say when they toss around the catch phrases. But I assure you that the people who coined those catch phrases do know what they mean, and you can engage with that if you don't like engaging with the rank-and-file who are rightfully enraged that nothing is being done, even if they themselves don't fully understand the magnitude or direction of what's required.