KevinC
5579
The only small consolation I have is that I don’t have kids. I’m 41, and likely won’t have to worry about the worst of it.
What baffles me are the millions of Americans that do have kids and are fighting tooth and nail to prevent us from doing anything about the crisis. Is it just that hard to admit they were wrong about climate change? They’d rather sacrifice the well-being of their children in order to avoid acknowledging reality?
As the father of a 3 year old I find it bewildering and enraging.
They are the most selfish people in the world. Don’t even care about their kids.
Cormac
5582
Well, that assumes they actually accept that we have a crisis in the first place. If thats just “fake news”, then obviously there’s nothing to worry about.
I think it’s very much the opposite. If you are poor enough that you have little room to spend more on anything, then climate saving but more expensive (in time or money) options would actually hurt your kids’ future by taking away resources from necessities. If you are rich, then making more money that your kids can inherit - and thus be in the privileged upper class who survive comfortably in the best remaining environment, protected by walls or armed guards etc - will best secure their future.
Obviously you can poke holes in those arguments, as I can myself. But they are rationalizations that fit nicely with our inherent tendency to put less weight on the future, so I think many people fall prey to this way of thinking, probably without even realizing it.
Right now, the most I can do for climate change is eat less beef and work from home.
If we want to see change, we need to start making environmental conscious options a lot cheaper so that families have an easier time affording the stuff that actually helps the planet.
The problem with thinking that this is how they are motivated is that they are the same people who don’t care about the environment when it comes to non-climate issues, e.g. air quality and water quality and toxins, etc. Because their armed camp ‘gated communities’ aren’t going to have better air.
MikeJ
5587
I think it’s more like thinking backwards. If climate change was real, that would mean that they were wrong all along and sacrifices would have to be made in the present. Therefore climate change can’t be real. If X is true then Y would be true, and Y is unacceptable. Therefore X is not true. QED.
Throw in a dash of “my individual sacrifice isn’t enough to matter” tragedy of the commons.
CraigM
5589
I mean I already do what is personally feasible and practical. Drive a hybrid, bike to work many days, eat less meat and especially red meat, recycle*, grow my own garden, use as much local produce as possible, and generally don’t be wasteful. While there is probably more I could do, though going full vegetarian is not an option with my wife, I definitely do my part.
But as anything more personally has diminishing returns and increasing costs, all I can do now is really advocate for more collective actions. Sadly, however, if every person in the US went to where I am, it still wouldn’t be enough because of industrial usage.
*which is far less effective than I had previously believed, due to recent reveals on how it is in reality
Emissions come from transportation, electricity, industry, and agriculture.
Transportation can be addressed through vehicle efficiency and electrification. Fuel economy standards are a poor way to do so, while a carbon tax works extremely well. If there was a dollar a gallon tax on gas and diesel, increasing to $10 / gallon over 10 years, the industry and consumers would rapidly and naturally shift to more efficient transportation. Not going to happen, of course, new taxes are not politically supportable.
Electricity can be addressed through nuclear and renewables which we have debated a lot here. Nuclear is almost necessary as a low-carbon base load, but it is too expensive to build and takes too long due to our environmental and cost framework. Other parts of the world with different governments may be able to move more quickly. Alternatively, renewables with true market pricing could work. Say it cost 10 cents / KW for electricity on a windy sunny day, but $5 / KW on a still night, and consumers would rapidly adopt home battery storage and/or adjust usage patterns.
Agriculture can be partially addressed through lower meat consumption and also through better farming practices. Unfortunately as the world gets wealthier meat consumption increases. A sin tax on meat could help.
Industry is partially saddled by the fact that the jobs are valuable so subsidized electricity happens. Again true market pricing could work a bit.
Too bad the USA which is the land of de-regulation can’t lead on true free-market pricing of gas, electricity, and food.
In short, what is needed is a strong political movement with widespread public support that rearranges the cost structure of the economy. Very difficult to do so, but some countries are trying. Norway is at about $8 / gallon and electric vehicles are at 58% market share of new sales.
As Matt Yglesias said the best thing you (if an American, obviously) can do for the climate is vote Democrat. Convenient, perhaps, but also true. IMO we should all push ourselves to live a lower carbon lifestyle while acknowledging that change at the necessary scale must happen at the highest political levels, and agitating for that.
Meanwhile, automakers are the good guys!
Maybe some, but the climate change “don’t carers” and climate change deniers I know all have plenty of money. Some even use the excuse that God is in control so we don’t need to bother. I really hate the people with $60,000 pick up trucks who have those coal burners, or whatever they are that dump tons of extra smoke pollution when they pass a Prius, Tesla, (or me on the sidewalk).
Those assholes are guilty of assault (intentionally producing large amounts of carcinogenic diesel particulates and directing them at people), and they should be arrested.
Two days earlier, Greta Thunberg spoke at the Assemblee Nationale (in English):
“Maybe you are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Because even that burden you leave to us children.”
Between this and Parkland I begin to wonder if the only sane people left are the ones under 20.
Yeah, it’s kind of not a heat wave. More like ‘the new summer’.
