It's that easy!
It's that easy!
https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/112303357717712825 Scroll down inside that link for a slightly more extreme version (NSFW).
80s: corporations send hundreds of tonnes of trash to landfills while people are told to reduce the trash they generate
90s: corporations make everything plastic and disposable while people are told to recycle
00s: corporations cover the atmosphere in greenhouse gasses while people are told to reduce their carbon footprint.
10s: corporations buy politicians while people are told to vote.
90s: corporations make everything plastic and disposable while people are told to recycle
It's worse than that: the plastics industry tells us to recycle -- even going so far as to plagiarize the recycling symbol into the resin identification codes -- despite knowing from the beginning that recycling plastic was mostly never going to be a viable thing. They did this purely to shift blame to consumers because the only way their business model worked was to not be held accountable for their waste.
This is Lemmy; we can put that slightly more extreme version right here!
(I don't think it really is NSFW, but I'll put it behind a spoiler tag to honor your opinion.)
NSFW
🙂 👍
I don't think it really is NSFW
Not that I find it in any way objectionable myself, but I'd say that in a very literal sense it's not safe for work. At least if you work for a corporation or similar type of soulless entity 😉
Reporter: [REDACTED]
Reason: Violent threats
I haven't yet been convinced that giving up meat can help. Specifically, I haven't seen the question of what happens to the grazing land.
If it is left to burn, the carbon it contains cycles grass ➡️ fire ➡️ CO2, particles ➡️ grass, etc
If it's left to rot it's grass ➡️ methane, CO2 ➡️ grass
If it is rewilded the carbon cycles grass ➡️ meat, methane ➡️ predators, etc
If left as it is it's the same, but with us in place of the predators.
I really feel like there is no way of preventing the carbon emissions of grasslands, but at least if they're making meat for us we can work on engineering a way out of the methane release, and people are working on that
And at worst it's not fossil carbon, it's renewable, the carbon emitted is captured again when the grass regrows
There's carbon in the farm equipment, but that's the same in all farming
It's because the explanation in the last panel should have happend before the 80s
Could have happened as soon as the 1950s when they first began seeing substantial proof of how harmful fossil fuels are.
But of course, the ones with all the money got to decide what the public gets to know. Just like it's been ever since 🤬
It was explained in the seventies. Then the oil crisis started and it was "save the economy" time.
When is it not?
20s: "Allow these criminal billionaires to escape to space and we may be able to start a new feudal colony on another planet"
The term is greenwashing, and it worked
overcome capitalism
Figure out a way to profit off fixing the problem
That's probably not possible, and it would be ineffective. The fossil fuel industry is still actively killing the planet, and will continue to do so for as long as they are allowed. The motivation to pollute will still exist even if we make carbon capture profitable.
Here are some actual solutions:
-
A carbon/pollution tax. The cost of carbon pollution isn't reflected in the price of oil barrels. Fix that, and then people will start switching away from fossil fuels. You can't let the externalities be externalities, that's how we got into this mess in the first place.
-
Ending the subsidies the fossil fuel industry receives, as well as tax breaks. Instead give that money to renewable energy sources
-
Fix our shitty ass transportation system. We are too dependent on cars & planes. Bikes, trains, and busses need to be viable, but they aren't with our current infrastucture/lackthereof
-
Higher density residential building with mixed use zoning. How are we going to have a green world when it takes a half hour car ride to walmart to get groceries?
Of course, none of these are really possible with money still in politics, and with voter apathy. But this is the pathway forward.
-
Impossible (outside of some small projects that tinker around the edges in beneficial ways, but can never do enough to put a substantial dent in the problem).
The problem comes down to something that's literally taught in economics 101: negative externalities. The cost to society of polluting is put on society, and not on the company actually causing that cost. There needs to be change in the legal situation so that doing the socially good thing is also the profitable thing. Whether that's taxes or outright banning polluting, or something else.
What do you think Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) that the oil companies have been pushing for is if not a naked attempt to profit from the problem? Of course CCS will require even more oil to run, but that just means more profit!
20's: "Don't look up."
😬
I don't think it's a secret that despite the overabundance of public messaging that "we" (the public) need to do x to "save the planet" or whatever, it's not working because it's entirely predicated on the idea that it's individuals doing the majority of the damage, which isn't the case.
Recycling is a particular scam. The idea of recycling basically gave everyone the green light to buy and use as many products that were "recyclable" as they wanted and could afford. The businesses making those products, in no small part started using "recyclable" plastics for nearly everything. People were satisfied that it was recyclable, with the three arrows in the package and that was it. All the while, recycling alone likely doubled the number of waste collection trucks on the road (increasing the amount of fuel needed) doubled the number of trucks needed to do collections of waste, and, as many have since pointed out, was largely not helpful, considering that plastics are basically impossible to recycle effectively at scale, into any product that anyone can use. Only a very small amount of plastic was ever able to be effectively recycled, and the vast majority was basically just landfill with extra steps.
So we polluted a fuckton more on an idea that it would save the planet, an instead, we just killed it more with trucks and oil.
This isn't a new story, and it's never been your fault. The last frame in this comic is what should have been done all along, but we were sold some bullshit lie so an asshole we've never met can buy another yacht.
And there's still legions of people engaging in wasteful practices and supporting companies that want you to throw out their products as soon as they release a "newer/better" version of the same. I'm looking at you, Apple. Sure, you've stepped back on this a little bit in the past few years, but remember when you intentionally slowed down millions of phones because they were 2+ years old, and for no other reason? I do.
Net Zero carbon emissions (or any other pollutant) shouldn't be the goal. It should be the minimum fucking standard.
The company I work for insists on almost every damn bit of stock arriving in delivery to be wrapped in a plastic bag. I've complained to management, they just laugh. Apparently I can't have any contact details for head office (not surprising since I'm not even allowed to contact HR directly and have to talk to them via a store manager). That's like 1000+ items coming in twice a week where almost all of it is individually wrapped in a bag.
Not only is it a pointless waste of plastic, but it doubles how long it takes to clear the stock as I have to take everything out of the bag (which is sealed both ends a lot of the time) instead of just putting it straight onto the shelves. I'm almost tempted to set up a twitter account so I can @ them. Almost, but not quite.
My previous employer did the same thing, but at least we had a way to talk to head office and a bunch of us complained so they did remove most of the plastic and started to use a band of paper to hold stock together, or a paper wrapper to protect delicate stuff. They went bust though.
You have no agency. In fact if I'm your employer I'm annoyed AF you're not a robot.
Net Zero carbon emissions (or any other pollutant) shouldn’t be the goal. It should be the minimum fucking standard.
Exactly. The part about recycling that you wrote makes me realize that fossil fuel industry has been more than an addiction for most of the masses with politicians (Think about Gerhard Schroeder in Germany with his Russian oil connections) and companies making the decisions in favor of destroying the planet. And those fossil fuel companies knew about the effects for decades. Just like tobacco companies were allowed to go for profits. Making profits and caring about shareholders has been worshiped for way too long.
And in the 1970s it was, "we all need to tighten our belts and conserve resources."
Guess which part of society didn't follow that advice at all?
How about: regulate the 10 largest companies and we can save the Earth?
If by "regulate" you mean "forcibly dissolve them and charge their CEOs with crimes against humanity and nature", then I agree
How about: regulate the 10 largest companies and we can save the Earth?
Good plan. Don't see that happen. Yesterday I briefly imagined that a small group of billionaires left the burning planet Earth in their spaceship. And angry politicians were surprisingly not allowed in that ship. And the masses were sad for the politicians while the melting earth was transforming into dust and ashes.
To be honest, we are fucking up the planet at an exponentially faster rate, so it is natural that mitigation solutions seems exponentially crazier.
There are people that believe that doing these crazy things will actually reverse the damage.
Then there are people like me who not only believe we are fucked but also believe that anything we do now is completely pointless as we are fucked either way so why bother.
Stop. Please stop. Doomerism compounds the problem, it is not a neutral stance.
Has irreparable damage already been done? Yes.
Will it be worse if we don't do anything as soon as possible? Yes. And each moment that we don't do the thing, it gets a little bit worse.
But each moment we do do the thing, it gets a little bit better.
The Earth will relatively be 1.5°, likely 2°C hotter, regardless of what actions are now taken. But 2°C hotter is far, far preferable to 4°C.
Everything we do as individuals and societies matters. I understand it feels daunting, and I'm not really advocating for you to drive less or eat less meat, because ultimately these changes won't be driven by individuals making the choices.
However, please please please support and push, protest, fight for societal changes for us collectively to drive less, eat less meat, and corporate carbon taxation.
However, please please please support and push, protest, fight for societal changes for us collectively to drive less, eat less meat, and corporate carbon taxation.
You may be preaching to the choir. This year in Europe more than 50 percent of the newly bought cars were SUVs. To me that feels that most people do not care, they just want to enjoy themselves as much as possible before total collapse. Protest ? Three states in the USA recently banned protesting. In Europe with far right winning about everywhere will likely go the same direction. It is obvious in the news headlines. Fascism is on the rise and the masses do not seem to care about a burning planet and killing of everything but themselves.
Well you can only do so much, and a denier will come and fuck everything up. Oil and coal companies will pay billions to keep the propaganda going - that the earth is just fine.
So tired of all that. Remember the CFC issue. World got together to fight it and it worked. I don't know if we will ever see such cooperation again. If we do, maybe we have a chance.
Other than a uniform collective action as a species we have no hope to turn this around. And since I don't see that happening anytime soon I would rather stick to my "Doomerism".
Yep, and i'm dangerously approaching this pov...
Still make efforts for the cause anyway.
I actually dont understand why we not do something drastic. I mean like ban cars and planes. We can still get around. Just not at the same speed at the moment. Someone will come up with a better idea then gas cars.
We also need to think about computers. Why throw them away? We could just make better software and keep the devices for a very, very long time. Heck, very bad computer could land on the moon...
I actually dont understand why we not do something drastic. I mean like ban cars and planes.
Talk so some other people about your idea and you'll understand why we don't.
It's because oily boiz don't want to give up their power and wealth. They seem to enjoy LARPing as dragons
Well, it is the many against the few rich. It is everyones planet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgMdjyw8uw - We WILL Fix Climate change.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Kurzgesagt and the art of climate greenwashing
No, Kurzgesagt, We WON'T Fix Climate Change - The Danger of Fake Optimism
How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Ever thought about how you're pushing the billionaire propaganda to keep people apathetic?
manatee bro