That’s a LOT of good information and we do agree that we all need to take action. We are not even close to be on target for the deadlines so every small individual effort counts. We do our bit as well. We believe we should be cleaning after ourselves, especially in cities, that’s why we are working on placing our units which do just that. Cleaning up our mess is also a very important requirement which has been quite left as a secondary actor when is indeed a very important one.
What can I do about climate change?
131–140 of 243 posts
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#132> 9. But if I eat less meat or take fewer flights, that’s just me – how much of a difference can that really make? > > Actually, it’s not just you. Social scientists have found that when one person makes a sustainability-oriented decision, other people do too. This is the thing that still gives me hope. Try to do good, and people will notice - and, without so much as telling others to something, they will emulate you…
Why is this the side of the ledger to work on? http://carbon.ycombinator.com/ seems like a much more effective means of mitigating the issues. The worst things that could happen to the environment would actually be whatever happens that results in a surprise cold spell. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age was such a period. If there is a cold snap, that will likely mean MORE coal burnt in Europe, which will…
It's not the side of the ledger to work on; it's one side.
However, I think it's an important side, because it's a side that will increase support for initiatives like the ones you mention.
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a fallacy with this type of thinking. It's something to the effect that "the big bad wolf is causing the trouble, therefore, I'm powerless to do anything" The reason corporations do what they do is because they are providing a service to millions of customers at the lowest cost and the highest profits for them. We, consumers, like to shift all the blame to someone else, it lets us continue as we have without…
> We, consumers, like to shift all the blame to someone else, An analogue: committing a crime is punishable, inciting it in some cases may be. It is the companies who dig up fossil fuels and use them --- "consumers told me to do it" is not an excuse that absolves from responsibility. Those trading in fossil fuels do what they do on their own accord, for financial gain, and hence carry the responsibility.
As long as all the world requires increasingly more energy, there will be political support and policies which allow the extraction of fossil fuels. This is the situation we have now. The companies digging up fossil fuel would go out of business if there was no demand for fossil fuels.
The problem is that the change in behaviour that this demands is great: ever thought about selling your car? or paying twice as much for a new electric car?
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#134Science is never settled, already there they start the misinformation which is being used so often these days. These kind of articles are so misguided yet people are so hysterical they actually think the individual can do things. There is nothing individuals can do that would actually help besides creating solutions to the ever changing consequences of the world we live in. Even if we by some magical event could stop…
> Science is never settled, already there they start the misinformation
Science is never settled, but arrives at increasingly accurate approximations of reality. If climate science's best approximation is doom, the rational collective response is not ignorance, but simultaneously to explore and exploit (address) the problem. Exploration by better modeling of the climate, and exploitation by pursuing known best solutions to the problem. To use a personal example of a complex system, if a person should show signs of cancer, or a virulent disease, even if medicinal knowledge is not sufficiently advanced to flawlessly diagnose the symptom, drastic action even under imperfect information is very reasonable.
In the case that drastic corrections were not necessary with respect to the climate, this nevertheless furthers the global society's resilience and response for when such drastic correction is needed.
> These kind of articles are so misguided yet people are so hysterical they actually think the individual can do things.
Without contending whether or not 'the individual can do things', the article does not give me that impression. Whereas indeed the article advocates individuals to change their individual behavior, the article is written for an audience of many. When advocacy articles like these acquire a sufficiently large megaphone, like the BBC, they cause significant collective action.
> But right now everyone is coming up with all sorts of irrational solutions to a problem that havent been properly defined and even if it was going to be as catastrophic as some have built themselves up to believe, flying less is going to have no useful effect.
The problem is the recent increase in global temperature corresponding to the recent increase in greenhouse gas production. To use the personal analogy, the elimination of mutated cells causing the tumors.
> Only way out of this is through the very technology that have created the cars, products etc. to begin with.
I think that this is a very irrational or ignorant notion. Collective action plays a very important part in very many big problems. For example, the abolition of slavery and women' suffrage are made possible (in the former case) by technology, but collective action was needed to enable these events.
Some people echo the irrational notion you seem to express that that just because individual action is useless then so is collective action, and so therefore the individual action should not be pursued. But this is clearly not the case, since collective action happens. If it seems that most big changes are performed by organizations and institutions and not individuals, this nevertheless does not negate the thesis that collective action effects changes, since sufficiently developed and mature collective action tends to organize when able, so that they are more self-sustaining.
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a bunch of tosh. You're worried about "extinction" from people having fewer kids? Meanwhile, we're on track to 10 billion people before 2050. Talk about premature optimisation!
Then, truly, you live to benefit some other people's children. Basically you are a monk. Monks also known for not making the difference in all that removing sin business.
Heaven forbid you do something with your life except reproduce, or accidentally help anyone beyond your own progeny...
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, you could make a point that if everyone has powerful appliances at home then the network has to be robust enough to handle quick changes in power needed. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_pickup So, in a sense, boiling water with gas has less externalities. EDIT: You can of course also argue, if we can't have powerful appliances why bother with electricity at all. I'm just saying it's not an issue that can b…
The TV pickup problem, while valid, unjustly shifts the blame. The regular citizens have put the work to buy the TV device, and continue to put the work daily so they can pay the power and cable bills. What else would you have them do? They work hard and maybe the TV is their way to unwind. Why, again, is the citizens' fault for putting the work needed to buy their entertainment device and then making them feel guilt…
> I pay electrical bills... they sort out the details
Then why are you even commenting in a thread about what can you do about climate change? Let someone else figure it all out and send you a bill!
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#137This graphic give a pretty good summary of the relative impact: https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/hire...
This is a good illustration. People should look at it not only from their personal POV, but in terms of general policies regarding population size...
There are parts of the world (for example, Africa) where population has been increasing ridiculously fast for decades and the estimates are that this will continue. A lot of this is thanks to the financial support from the West. When there's news that the population of Japan is decreasing people talk about it as if it's a catastrophe. But Japan is very densely populated right now and I think they'll be fine either way (maybe some short term economic struggles, but they won't go extinct).
These topics can be politically taboo, but they shouldn't be. These issues are too important and long term effects can be catastrophic for the environment and the general quality of life on Earth.
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
As the article mentions, individuals can do something about corporate pollution: - Buy less stuff. Corporations produce waste because we buy their stuff . Get the stuff you still buy from more environmentally-friendly companies, if possible. - Political action. Corporations need to be regulated and that can only happen through political action. Lobbies may have a lot of power, but in the end, it's the citizens who vo…
> Buy less stuff. This is becoming harder and harder with time. Believe me, I would love to buy my kitchen stove, washing machine, refrigerator, aspirator, air conditioner and vacuum cleaner from a local manufacturer. But there are none. How many household brands do really exist and how many are actually known and bought by almost everyone? Additionally, even if you are an idealist who wants to be the change they wan…
The first point speaks to the "reduce" in the phrase "reduce, reuse, recycle". It's not so important where your washing machine was made, more important how you make use of it - e.g., do you run it at 40 degrees or 30? Etc. Other examples are using dryers when you could just hang things out to dry.
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#139This article's quality is higher than many others on the same topic and that's a pleasant surprise. That being said, I can't help being reminded about German language lessons I had ~10 years ago where the teacher was preaching that we must all ditch electric kettles for the sake of the planet. I asked her how is this going to help -- even if 100_00 people do it today -- if corporations are happy to let toxic waste se…
Off-topic but what's wrong with electrical kettles? was her position to not boil water or to use a different kind of kettle? My Kitchen has electric range so I doubt using a non-electric kettle on it would be any more efficient.
There's nothing wrong with electric kettles, in fact they're probably the most energy-efficient way of boiling water.
I've taken to boiling the required amount of water in the kettle when I boil rice or anything similar. It's much faster, too.
It's also a good idea to boil a full kettle once in a while, and pour the remaining boiling water you don't need down the drain. It helps break up fat deposits and kills bacteria that cause bad-smelling drains, and the environmental impact is much less than using drain cleaner. And for the love of your drains, don't pour grease in there!
Re: What can I do about climate change?
#140This article's quality is higher than many others on the same topic and that's a pleasant surprise. That being said, I can't help being reminded about German language lessons I had ~10 years ago where the teacher was preaching that we must all ditch electric kettles for the sake of the planet. I asked her how is this going to help -- even if 100_00 people do it today -- if corporations are happy to let toxic waste se…
As the article mentions, individuals can do something about corporate pollution: - Buy less stuff. Corporations produce waste because we buy their stuff . Get the stuff you still buy from more environmentally-friendly companies, if possible. - Political action. Corporations need to be regulated and that can only happen through political action. Lobbies may have a lot of power, but in the end, it's the citizens who vo…
Individuals have huge power over pollution in general and corporate pollution in particular.
Individuals are in the end the drivers of corporate actions because they are the consumers.
It's not necessarily about buying less stuff but about changing your daily actions and about buying only products you consider environmentally friendly.
Corporations will produce what sells. We decide what sells through our individual choices and actions.
Edit:
We can also make it quite plain to corporations: For example, why not ask coffee shops/takeaways how they plan to pack our order before we actually order then walk away if we don't like the answer? If many people start to do that I'm sure things will change fast.