Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

currentaffairs.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 212 posts

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#21

Post by specproc »

lukeify wrote: post #6

At this point I’m not sure what to do about it. I already live a low-ish carbon life. I barely ever fly. Only drive when I need to. Try and use items that are non-plastic where feasible. I don’t buy extra clothes. It’s at the point where I wish it were solvable, but I don’t believe it is, so I can’t afford to think about it. Maybe people better than me can, and good luck to them.

It's not at all about individual action. This scale of problem requires policy intervention and investment at national levels, and inter-governmental coordination internationally.

The big, meaningful wins come from things like stopping the use of coal, not signing-off on new oil and gas exploration, tax-incentives and disincentives, grid work, fining polluters.

We instinctively frame this as an individual problem, the cynic might say we've been encouraged to, but the reality is that whether or not you fly this summer has precisely dick-all impact globally. It's the actions of our governments that count.

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#24

Post by Ekaros »

ericmay wrote: post #17
Demiurge wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger factor is probably the global pandemic, economic degradation, looming nuclear winter, genocide, WW3, aliens, and singularity. Not to mention orange clowns. We have surpassed the Britney Spears controversy era. Unless the polar bears are going to invade DC and attack ICE, we might not hear much about the climate change until these other problems go away.

And let’s also not forget, we all want the climate crises fixed, but nobody is willing to personally make any changes to their lifestyle! All parties are incentivized against fixing this problem.

That is fundamentally the problem with whole thing. Vast majority of population on Earth is not ready for personal sacrifices needed. And if some government will get to around it, I am pretty sure they will be replaced and most things are rolled back.

My guess is that we somehow end up geoengineering it with even more debt...

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#26

Post by unsupp0rted »

lukeify wrote: post #6

At this point I’m not sure what to do about it. I already live a low-ish carbon life. I barely ever fly. Only drive when I need to. Try and use items that are non-plastic where feasible. I don’t buy extra clothes. It’s at the point where I wish it were solvable, but I don’t believe it is, so I can’t afford to think about it. Maybe people better than me can, and good luck to them.

I do all those things freely, and that offsets your carefulness. But I don’t/won’t have kids, so I’m not even a drop in the bucket.

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#27

Post by tim-star »

ericmay wrote: post #17
Demiurge wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bigger factor is probably the global pandemic, economic degradation, looming nuclear winter, genocide, WW3, aliens, and singularity. Not to mention orange clowns. We have surpassed the Britney Spears controversy era. Unless the polar bears are going to invade DC and attack ICE, we might not hear much about the climate change until these other problems go away.

And let’s also not forget, we all want the climate crises fixed, but nobody is willing to personally make any changes to their lifestyle! All parties are incentivized against fixing this problem.

at the end of the day 'personal changes' as a fix for climate change are just another lie big corporations fed us to make it feel like the onus was on a personal level.

the amount of co2 that industries pollute and that various regulation would be able to change is multiple orders of magnitude compared to regular personal responsibility.

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#28

Post by GJim »

lukeify wrote: post #6

At this point I’m not sure what to do about it. I already live a low-ish carbon life. I barely ever fly. Only drive when I need to. Try and use items that are non-plastic where feasible. I don’t buy extra clothes. It’s at the point where I wish it were solvable, but I don’t believe it is, so I can’t afford to think about it. Maybe people better than me can, and good luck to them.

Don't have a pet cat or dog.

Owning an unnecessary carnivorous animal is rather bad news from a CO2 perspective. A dog can be responsible for higher CO2 emissions than a car.

https://impact.ed.ac.uk/research/climate-environmental-crisi...

https://www.zerosmart.co.uk/post/the-average-carbon-footprin...

(Que outrage from pet owners and people suggesting I'm a crazy vegan.... I'm most certainly not vegan or veggie!)

Re: The Gargantuan Lie That Is Collapsing the Climate

#29

Post by unsupp0rted »

fsflover wrote: post #4

I hate when such (great) articles end with "we have a lot to do". Please give at least a couple of examples of a constructive action. "Write to your government", "Support this NGO". Do not loose the moment of attention you have just won.

Just think of all the good NGOs have done
Post reply on HN