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The Swiss reject key climate change measures

bbc.com

21–30 of 116 posts

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#21

* Swiss CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita): 4.17 * US CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita): 15.5 Switzerland is already among the lowest polluters in the EU and much lower than Australia/Canada/US. Just for context.

It would be interesting to see how much pollution is "externalised"... besides public transport and living density is a lot higher than most of the US, AUS or Canada...

also how much pollution is caused by corporations from Switzerland...

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#22

It would be very interesting to see a breakdown of voting by age. Environmental destruction has a much greater impact to the young.

Votes need change from INT to FLOAT, so old people get 0.75 of a vote and young people get 1.5 ... because [edit] downvotes! Why? Is it a crazy idea that young people should have more of a say about their future than old people? Where I live the old generation are fucking over the young generation in a big way.

Why not the opposite?

"Hey, I've seen everything!"

vs

"Hey, that's what I was told on TV!"

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#23

The Swiss rejected some taxes. I think this is an important distinction compared to "climate change measures". The (very slim) majority may feel that such taxes are not the best way to deal with climate change, and support other ideas instead. There are a lot of politicians presenting the false choice of wealth redistribution or climate change apathy. There are other ways of looking at this, which I don't think are c…

[deleted]

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#24

Is there a certain point where we say “it’s going to be worse case climate scenario, let’s prepare?” I’m asking for a friend from a different planet …

It may be difficult to predict exactly what that scenario entails. Sure we have models etc but it’s still uncharted territory. Plus it’s not like there’s 1 magic threshold we can pass and then it doesn’t matter anymore — the main means of mitigation long term would still be the same as what is already being advocated for.

Regarding something like trying to do something to reduce the average global temperature…the risks of getting something wrong attempting that likely outweigh the benefits.

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#26

"Fighting" climate change on a national level like this is disingenuous. It is not going to accomplish anything. There needs to be global agreements involving the biggest players. Else it is just a self inflicted penalty that accomplishes nothing.

I think if you can afford to show by example , you should... any penalty you incur makes you better prepared and more competitive for later...

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#28

The Swiss rejected some taxes. I think this is an important distinction compared to "climate change measures". The (very slim) majority may feel that such taxes are not the best way to deal with climate change, and support other ideas instead. There are a lot of politicians presenting the false choice of wealth redistribution or climate change apathy. There are other ways of looking at this, which I don't think are c…

Okay. Now do Swiss voters on migrants, refugees, and participation in science programmes of the EU.

What you’ll find is that the Swiss are an insular myopic bunch.

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#29

Is there a certain point where we say “it’s going to be worse case climate scenario, let’s prepare?” I’m asking for a friend from a different planet …

If you have or are planning to have a family, you should likely be thinking about just this already on a personal and family level. Do what you can to reduce your footprint, but also do your long-term planning based on expectations of climate change.

Among other things, don't buy property within anything considered 100-year or possibly even 500-year flood zones - climate change may mean that 100-year zones start getting flooded every 10 years or less, and that's not only going to impact you directly but the economics of recovery because you and all your never-expected-to-flood neighbors will be trying to recover.

Also consider how the climate is expected to change over the next 50 years where you're considering settling - and what impact it'll have if it changes faster than that.

Re: The Swiss reject key climate change measures

#30

We need more referendums in the US. It would nice to see the people rebuke the far left and right more often.

One might want to study the impacts of initiative voting in the western US. There are times when bypassing the legislative process is perhaps essential (term-limits for legislators?), but mostly it bypasses the compromises often made in representative democracies.

Initiatives can impose new law without handling externalities well. It is possible to vote for "no new taxes" and "properly fund schools!" without balancing the tension between the two.

It is my feeling that initiatives are good, at least in theory, but the requirement for passage ought to be greater than 50%.

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