Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
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Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#2Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand.
Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change.
If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine to not care about this at all. And it’s also clear that people don’t care about this at all or they would change rather than hope that someone else will change.
Politicians are incentivized to get elected so don’t expect them to do anything that would risk that — like making laws that inconvenience the people who vote for them or give them money.
Whether I eat meat (I don’t) or Taylor Swift flies in a private jet (she does) doesn’t matter at all when it comes to the environment. That ship has sailed and the effects of climate change are pretty much baked in at this point. The hope is that I’m wealthy enough (in a global context) to avoid any real inconvenience to myself before I die.
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#3[flagged]
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#4Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
Woah, I expected you to get to the point that concerted effort, legislation and better technology is the only thing which will lower carbon dioxide outputs. Instead I got fatalism. :-P
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#5This is why I am in favor of a carbon dividend: tax carbon emissions at the source and distribute the revenue equally among residents. This way the average person doesn't experience any difference.
The main challenge is finding a reasonable way of dealing with imports.
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#6Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
> The hope is that I’m wealthy enough (in a global context) to avoid any real inconvenience to myself before I die.
You might get away with that if you're old enough to die before it gets bad. But if/when we get to serious effects from climate change then wealth isn't going help much because people will very quickly stop respecting the laws that enforce it.
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#7Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
Demonstrably and empirically untrue. We’ve made progress on this issue and we can make more.
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#8Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
> the effects of climate change are pretty much baked in at this point
It can has already gotten bad so let's just give up and let it get worse and worse? Climate change isn't a binary phenomenon. It can always get worse.
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#9Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
> Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change.
It's rather "I do meaningful actions (i.e. I don't take plane) so I'd be happy if they would do it too".
Re: Personal carbon footprint of the rich is vastly underestimated
#10Any time you spend thinking or breath you spend talking about someone else’s carbon footprint is a total fool’s errand. Nobody will ever change their carbon footprint because of what someone else tells them. There will always be someone worse than them who they can point to and say, “Well I’m not as bad as them so they should change. If people cared at all about this, they’d change their own behavior. And it’s fine t…
> The hope is that I’m wealthy enough (in a global context) to avoid any real inconvenience to myself before I die. You might get away with that if you're old enough to die before it gets bad. But if/when we get to serious effects from climate change then wealth isn't going help much because people will very quickly stop respecting the laws that enforce it.
> because people will very quickly stop respecting the laws that enforce it.
Not if they die first. It all depends on how quickly things get bad.