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What You Can Do About Climate Change

nytimes.com

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Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#51

Post by ThomPete »

exergy wrote: post #43
ThomPete wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not driving is not an option in many cases. Starting to bike doesn't solve climate change problems. Not sure how you would plant a raspberry tree in a New York apartment. There is very little the normal person can do about climate change without radically changing the way they live their lives and thats just not an option for most people.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

thats ok i can take it but what you dont seem to get is that we are humans not systems and thus wont be making the changes any other way than through technology.

you are basically asking humans not to be human which i believe is a common engineering blind spot :)

dont hate the players hate the game.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#52

Post by mnm1 »

Considering that most of the pollution that causes climate change is caused by industry no single person can control, and that the solution proposed in this article will only work for a small percentage of upper class people at best, the only almost-universal (in the US) thing one can do to fight climate change is vote or participate in the political process. Sure, it's not very effective, but neither is this ploy to blame citizens for pollution when most pollution is caused by commercial and government entities. What's the point of getting a Prius if the government is going to allow industry to do whatever it wants as regards to pollution? Until this society and the government that allegedly represents it gets its shit together and starts regulating commercial industries and caring about climate change, why should I even care? It simply won't make a difference.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#53

Post by cromulent »

RangerScience wrote: post #8
r-s wrote: post #4

I have chosen to not have children. Environment concerns was not the only factor, but a significant one. I suspect that this choice is far better for the environment then anything listed in that article.

Someday, all the people that are left will be the descendants of the people who had kids. Adopt, so that you're not contributing to population, but are contributing what makes you a responsible human to that future population.

Everyday, not someday, surely :)

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#54

Post by ThomPete »

jdavis703 wrote: post #42
ThomPete wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not driving is not an option in many cases. Starting to bike doesn't solve climate change problems. Not sure how you would plant a raspberry tree in a New York apartment. There is very little the normal person can do about climate change without radically changing the way they live their lives and thats just not an option for most people.

It's funny, I have a lime tree and fig tree in my apartment, along with some other plants. Even if not driving is not an option, there's always carpooling which should approximately halve the impact of driving alone. We can either wait for climate change to disrupt our lives, or we can disrupt climate change.

what about just preparing for the consequences of climate change.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#55

Post by [deleted] »

exergy wrote: post #43
ThomPete wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not driving is not an option in many cases. Starting to bike doesn't solve climate change problems. Not sure how you would plant a raspberry tree in a New York apartment. There is very little the normal person can do about climate change without radically changing the way they live their lives and thats just not an option for most people.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

[deleted]

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#56

Post by jcoffland »

ThomPete wrote: post #20
blurbleblurble wrote: post #13

Reading this article makes me feel very angry, especially as I look at the authors' background. There are so many things we can do, and these people are telling us that "the winner" is driving brand new fuel efficient cars, hot off the assembly line? What about biking? Walking? What about changing our habits so as not to rely as much on cars in the first place. How about not driving ? There are people who don't drive…

Not driving is not an option in many cases. Starting to bike doesn't solve climate change problems. Not sure how you would plant a raspberry tree in a New York apartment. There is very little the normal person can do about climate change without radically changing the way they live their lives and thats just not an option for most people.

Not driving is always an option. What if fuel cost $10,000 a gallon? Would you still drive? No, you'd figure something else out. You would convince your boss to let you telecommute, you'd take the train, bike or walk. Or you would find another job.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#57

Post by badosu »

ThomPete wrote: post #51
exergy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

thats ok i can take it but what you dont seem to get is that we are humans not systems and thus wont be making the changes any other way than through technology. you are basically asking humans not to be human which i believe is a common engineering blind spot :) dont hate the players hate the game.

Maybe you're underestimating how human culture can change in few years, specially when you consider the rising economical impact of climate change...

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#58

Post by kmonsen »

ThomPete wrote: post #51
exergy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

thats ok i can take it but what you dont seem to get is that we are humans not systems and thus wont be making the changes any other way than through technology. you are basically asking humans not to be human which i believe is a common engineering blind spot :) dont hate the players hate the game.

Then we will sooner or later loose. It is true that this time we might avoid disaster (it will be very rough whatever we do from now on) with the help of technology. But that is just luck that there is a technology available to help us. In a slightly different world, solar would never be cheap enough or good enough to provide energy in a sustainable way. And this is true for many other aspects, tragedy of the commons is hundreds of years old.

The fact is we need regulations and incentives to do the right thing.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#59

Post by mnm1 »

exergy wrote: post #43
ThomPete wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not driving is not an option in many cases. Starting to bike doesn't solve climate change problems. Not sure how you would plant a raspberry tree in a New York apartment. There is very little the normal person can do about climate change without radically changing the way they live their lives and thats just not an option for most people.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

I don't know anyone that wants to live 25 miles from work. But almost everyone I know cannot afford to live closer and wants to. I'd love to live in the city. Too bad it's completely unaffordable, even at 3x the median income. This particular solution you have provided is also a solution only the upper class can employ, just like the one in the article. Wind turbines and nuclear reactors: now we're finally getting somewhere. And to build those, you need politicians that are willing to propose and fund them. I'm all for wearing sweaters indoors and only buying phones when the planned obsolescence of modern software makes them unusable (3-5 yrs), but that's an insignificant drop in the bucket. You will never get enough people to adopt such actions without legislation.

Re: What You Can Do About Climate Change

#60

Post by exergy »

ThomPete wrote: post #51
exergy wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive me for the forthcoming rant, this is not a slight at you, but I really dislike the kind of attitude that you are projecting here. Al Gore famously said in his documentary that a lot of people go from Denial to Despair without pausing at the middle step of Doing Something about it. Biking definitely can solve climate change. Seems to me that people simply do not get it through their heads that climate change s…

thats ok i can take it but what you dont seem to get is that we are humans not systems and thus wont be making the changes any other way than through technology. you are basically asking humans not to be human which i believe is a common engineering blind spot :) dont hate the players hate the game.

Yeah, you're right of course. Any solution requiring humans to change at large scales through raw appeals to emotion is itself Dead on Arrival.

This is where I'm really happy that the cult of mustachianism[1] is spreading as virally as it is. More people than anyone could ever have imagined, up and down the economic spectrum and up and down the Cost Of Living spectrum, are banding together to save money, and by extension, reducing their carbon footprint.

It's getting big enough that I get the feeling that the new status signifier is (slowly/glacially) becoming being able to live without excess. This is great because it will slowly shift the goalposts of what people aspire to.

[1]: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/03/07/frugality-the-new-...

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