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The idea of average individuals being the relevant actors in global carbon emissions is pure misdirection. They're not, it's systemic with industry being the ma

The idea of average individuals being the relevant actors in global carbon emissions is pure misdirection. They're not, it's systemic with industry being the main culprit and the rich being the ones who benefit from that socialization of pollution costs. The AMOC shutdown isn't merely "possible" and due "this century" either. The math of the dynamics of complex systems shows the current behavior to be signs of a phase transition in the process of happening. The speed of that shutdown isn't "decades" either, it's more likely just years. The voices of "experts" telling you it was all some incomprehensible conundrum should deeply worry you. They're either not being honest or they're no experts.

vladms 4mo ago
> They're not, it's systemic with industry being the main culprit and the rich being the ones who benefit from that socialization of pollution costs. You two might agree if we consider that when you say "rich" you might describe the average individual on this website (if we consider all people alive). I do believe that 90% of the people would not want to actually destroy the planet the way it seems to be happening, but I also believe that 90% of the people can't refrain themselves from bad health habits either. So, to fix the root cause I would discuss more about people's bad emotional/impulse control, otherwise we will just change one issue (climate) to any of the others (violence, unhappiness, etc.)
- tovej 4mo ago
  It's an even smaller percentage of people that are most responsible. Any multimillionaire is already someone who could have an impact, but mostly it's the 100 million club and up that are causing the most damage. And bug LLCs in general, since those are essentially optimising for profit only.
- Loquebantur 4mo ago
  No, you're entirely wrong. The impact an individual has on carbon emissions is directly correlated with their wealth. The distribution of which is extremely uneven: as of 2024, the top 1% worldwide possessed as much as the lower 95% combined, 57 trillion US$. That has gotten only worse in the last two years. It's not about "bad habits", impulse control or whatever, at all.
  - vladms 4mo ago
    Wealth distribution is an issue, but lots of "wealth" is due to stuff that is owned by some and used by many. Take a landlord as an example: he might have 100 houses and own 99% of the wealth in a village, but if the houses are inhabited, people still use them. If those people want to use a 300 sq meter houses rather than 50 sq meter studios, they do contribute as well to the climate issue. This holds for other fields as well. Example: "... private air travel accounted for 6.3% of the ‘total commercial plus private aviation emissions’ in the USA in 2019, and 7.9% in 2021." https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01775-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01775-z I honestly can't say that 92.1% which is from "normal" population is ignorable. There are no easy solution and everybody is responsible by different degrees. Pointing fingers and wanting "others" to fix it first is not in my view something that ever worked.
    - dqv 4mo ago
      > I honestly can't say that 92.1% which is from "normal" population is ignorable. It would be even harder to ignore if the 0.003% of the population causing 7.9% of the emissions were banned from private flight and had to start doing "normal" flight like everyone else :)
    - Loquebantur 4mo ago
      Your simplistic take is fundamentally wrong. It would take someone in the bottom 99% of the world's population more than 1,500 years to match the personal lifetime carbon footprint of a billionaire. People in the top 1% can be attributed with 25% of emissions when you take their investments into account also. But most importantly, they are the ones who actually "steer the boat". They are responsible for the utter lack of proper action against the pollution. Your "arguments" are precisely the deflection they employ to steer public attention away from them. Notice the utter absurdity of asking the bottom 99% of humanity to take responsibility for what they have absolutely no control over.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 4mo ago
        In the event that it helps: telling people that they're wrong repeatedly is not a very effective way to get your point across.
graeme 4mo ago
This isn't true at all. If all of the global rich immediately became carbonless monks....we would cut only a portion of emissions. And continuing to emit increases global warming. Even if you estimate that the top 1% use 70% of our carbon (implausible) that still just pushes threshold back a few decades. And if industry stopped producing with carbon billions would starve. Industry makes stuff for people. Energy is useful, we aren't just taking oil, coal and gas and burning it in factories for fun.
- Loquebantur 4mo ago
  Them becoming carbonless would already cut 16.5% of emissions. Together with their investments they are responsible for 25% of emissions. But more importantly, the reason nothing is happening to cut the systemic reasons for the pollution is due to them. You present a straw man when you point at simplistic nonsense like "energy is useful". There is no dichotomy "either carbon pollution or we sit in caves". You argue from ignorance.
- triceratops 4mo ago
  > Even if you estimate that the top 1% use 70% of our carbon (implausible) that still just pushes threshold back a few decades. Getting a few more decades to handle this thing would be amazing!

vladms 4mo ago

> They're not, it's systemic with industry being the main culprit and the rich being the ones who benefit from that socialization of pollution costs. You two might agree if we consider that when you say "rich" you might describe the average individual on this website (if we consider all people alive). I do believe that 90% of the people would not want to actually destroy the planet the way it seems to be happening, but I also believe that 90% of the people can't refrain themselves from bad health habits either. So, to fix the root cause I would discuss more about people's bad emotional/impulse control, otherwise we will just change one issue (climate) to any of the others (violence, unhappiness, etc.)

tovej 4mo ago
It's an even smaller percentage of people that are most responsible. Any multimillionaire is already someone who could have an impact, but mostly it's the 100 million club and up that are causing the most damage. And bug LLCs in general, since those are essentially optimising for profit only.
Loquebantur 4mo ago
No, you're entirely wrong. The impact an individual has on carbon emissions is directly correlated with their wealth. The distribution of which is extremely uneven: as of 2024, the top 1% worldwide possessed as much as the lower 95% combined, 57 trillion US$. That has gotten only worse in the last two years. It's not about "bad habits", impulse control or whatever, at all.
- vladms 4mo ago
  Wealth distribution is an issue, but lots of "wealth" is due to stuff that is owned by some and used by many. Take a landlord as an example: he might have 100 houses and own 99% of the wealth in a village, but if the houses are inhabited, people still use them. If those people want to use a 300 sq meter houses rather than 50 sq meter studios, they do contribute as well to the climate issue. This holds for other fields as well. Example: "... private air travel accounted for 6.3% of the ‘total commercial plus private aviation emissions’ in the USA in 2019, and 7.9% in 2021." https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01775-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01775-z I honestly can't say that 92.1% which is from "normal" population is ignorable. There are no easy solution and everybody is responsible by different degrees. Pointing fingers and wanting "others" to fix it first is not in my view something that ever worked.
  - dqv 4mo ago
    > I honestly can't say that 92.1% which is from "normal" population is ignorable. It would be even harder to ignore if the 0.003% of the population causing 7.9% of the emissions were banned from private flight and had to start doing "normal" flight like everyone else :)
  - Loquebantur 4mo ago
    Your simplistic take is fundamentally wrong. It would take someone in the bottom 99% of the world's population more than 1,500 years to match the personal lifetime carbon footprint of a billionaire. People in the top 1% can be attributed with 25% of emissions when you take their investments into account also. But most importantly, they are the ones who actually "steer the boat". They are responsible for the utter lack of proper action against the pollution. Your "arguments" are precisely the deflection they employ to steer public attention away from them. Notice the utter absurdity of asking the bottom 99% of humanity to take responsibility for what they have absolutely no control over.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 4mo ago
      In the event that it helps: telling people that they're wrong repeatedly is not a very effective way to get your point across.

graeme 4mo ago

This isn't true at all. If all of the global rich immediately became carbonless monks....we would cut only a portion of emissions. And continuing to emit increases global warming. Even if you estimate that the top 1% use 70% of our carbon (implausible) that still just pushes threshold back a few decades. And if industry stopped producing with carbon billions would starve. Industry makes stuff for people. Energy is useful, we aren't just taking oil, coal and gas and burning it in factories for fun.

Loquebantur 4mo ago
Them becoming carbonless would already cut 16.5% of emissions. Together with their investments they are responsible for 25% of emissions. But more importantly, the reason nothing is happening to cut the systemic reasons for the pollution is due to them. You present a straw man when you point at simplistic nonsense like "energy is useful". There is no dichotomy "either carbon pollution or we sit in caves". You argue from ignorance.
triceratops 4mo ago
> Even if you estimate that the top 1% use 70% of our carbon (implausible) that still just pushes threshold back a few decades. Getting a few more decades to handle this thing would be amazing!