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Welp. Time for a conference we all fly to using private jets to tell the plebs how it's their doing that's destroying the planet. Maybe agree on a tax or someth
by snehk 3y ago
Welp. Time for a conference we all fly to using private jets to tell the plebs how it's their doing that's destroying the planet. Maybe agree on a tax or something that screws over the little guy while having absolutely no effect on the global climate.
- renegat0x0 3y agoIt's also time to greenwash some money to warm up our image.... I mean... it's time to invest in some corporations that promise to fix climate through elaborate yet ineffective means. ... or if that not helps maybe it is time to destroy some more Van Gogh paintings or something.
- psychoslave 3y ago>... or if that not helps maybe it is time to destroy some more Van Gogh paintings or something. I wish that this kind of symbolic transgression could really be the most tragic consequences of the situation. I could come with a digression of my own, but probably you’ll be better serve with a document like https://phys.org/news/2021-10-climate-contributes-global-violence.html https://phys.org/news/2021-10-climate-contributes-global-vio...
- gala8y 3y agoLet us do not forget about plastic straws. Let's ban plastic straws.
- psychoslave 3y agoOh, I thought that was already the case everywhere as I live in France and basically didn’t travel much over the last years. The trend is probably too slow but it’s there: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bans-around-the-world/ https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-bans-around...
- gala8y 3y agoYeah, I was referring to this past move of EU as being particularly effective one to combat plastic pollution. EDIT: But you are right, banning single-use plastic bags is a first step. Let's keep walking.
- pelagicAustral 3y agoHaha, Funny, I live in the Falklands and plastic bags along with plastic straws have been banned. But you can walk along the coast line and most of the time, the pollution there is all plastic coming from the fishing industry... Yet, no one is saying nothing about that, since the economy is driven by the fishing industry... Not long ago I had a few scientist friends working for an "NGO", and it was so crazy to see mugs and other swag from oil companies over at their HQ...
- gala8y 3y agoExactly my point. Systemic thinking and action at its best.
- Toutouxc 3y agoWhich "tax or something" screws over the little guy while having absolutely no effect on the global climate?
- bluescrn 3y agoMost taxes on motorists outside of large towns/cities (where there's no viable alternative to cars). Of course, climate catastrophists want everyone living in pods in dystopian mega-cities as the solution for this. Ok, 'get in the pods' may be a silly meme, but living a tiny but ludicrously expensive city centre apartment and working from home on a screen (or in a future metaverse) all day, getting most things delivered and rarely needing to go outside, it's getting pretty close.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoThe only reason cars are viable "outside large towns/cities" is because the large cities are subsidizing road construction in rural areas. Those rural area voters, in turn, elect politicians who scream blue bloody murder about how high taxes are, and refuse to vote for funding for public transportation...something that would benefit the cities generating the wealth the rural areas. Isn't it wild how the "fiscal conservatives" always come from states that consume far more federal spending than they contribute in federal tax revenue? Further, we over-paved rural areas in the name of "progress" - dirt roads are much, much cheaper but people hate them because they think it's a sign of being poor.
- bergen 3y agoA tax on CO2 producers that is redistributed as basic income, helping the smallest guy the most, would be a gradual force to shift to cleaner energy, since the seismic shift that is required cleary is not favored by anyone.
- sigmoid10 3y agoSince the people who decide this got into their positions with support from the only group who would lose from this in the short term, we can be sure that it'll never happen.
- ben_w 3y agoWhile I approve of UBI and environmental protection, I don't think it's going to help either cause to mix them together like that.
- underseacables 3y agoAny tax in America would be completely pointless if there's nothing that limits, China, and India, as the world's largest polluters. Anything the West does is just a drop in the bucket, unless those two countries follow.
- hatenberg 3y agoIt's a very large drop. 33% of global carbon emissions are from the west 18% from the united states A significant share of chinese emmissions is driven by western consumerism as well and could be reduced. Even a 10% reduction of the overall share driven purely by the west would amount to a lot more than a drop. Even more if coupled with a proper incentive system for other countries to follow "completely pointless"?
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoExactly. People forget that all the environmental damage coming from China and other sweatshop countries, comes from manufacturing stuff on the cheap to feed western consumerism, and those corners cut to achieve such low prices are not just on labor but also on lack of environmental protection. There's a reason semiconductors are no longer manufactured in 'Silicon Valley' who's soil is still full of forever chemicals, but mostly all moved to Asia where there's a lot less concern for the local environment as long as billions are flowing in the country. https://theconversation.com/how-silicon-valley-industry-polluted-the-sylvan-california-dream-85810 https://theconversation.com/how-silicon-valley-industry-poll...
- concordDance 3y agoA flat per gram CO2 tax would be a great idea, but universal international cooperation is required and this would hurt less developed countries a LOT. At this point lots of warming is inevitable regardless of what (peaceful) things the US and EU do. Africa will get four billion people this century and they want things.
- ben_w 3y agoAfrica can skip a lot of our mistakes. PV is cheap, and for places that don't yet have a reliable grid connection, batteries may be cheaper than building a grid (or stabilising it if they have one that's unstable).
- hutzlibu 3y agoYup, the same way they skipped landline phones and started with smartphones right away.
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoThey probably won't skip ICE car ownership and dirty industry revolving around mining and manufacturing cheap stuff for the 'green' west.
- hutzlibu 3y agoNo, currently they don't. All the old cars not fit for europe anymore, just get send to africa. But if the west would be serious about climate change and developement aid, there would be huge opportunities to do things different.
- ben_w 3y agoI've only visited one place in Africa (Nairobi) an only once (about a decade ago); the cars I saw were all in poor condition and about 20-30 years old when I saw them. Also one of the people we visited had an income so low their annual rent was equivalent to about US$1k, so consider how old and decrepit a vehicle has to be on a western market to be in her price range. There's a huge variation of culture and living standards across the continent, from people much richer than that who buy new cars that are expensive by western standards to people who walk miles to get water from a well because there isn't any plumbing. PV and storage have the advantage of being scalable down to small cheap things that even the poorest can benefit from. Cars, not so much, so for low priced transportation, think instead about e-bicycles and e-motorbikes, and even manual bicycles. Or public transport (but even then, the crowded matatu I was in for one trip looked old).
- CalRobert 3y agoDo you have a source to support your claim that a carbon tax, which is generally seen as an efficient way to reduce carbon emissions, would have no effect on the global climate and screw over the little guy? I ask as a renter who doesn't own a car and would love to stop paying for other people's fancy electric SUV's and house retrofits that costs tens of thousands of Euro.
- avery17 3y agoHe didn't say carbon tax. You've propped up quite the strawman here.
- pauldenton 3y ago[dead]