"We" aren't failing at controlling climate change. That's because "we"- the actual people- have little power to make the decisions necessary to fix things.
Instead, this is being done to us.
The small group of sociopathic billionaires driving the destruction would like nothing more than for us to blame ourselves for what they are actively doing to us, absolving them of blame.
So stop saying "we" are failing. We're not. We're fine.
Oil billionaire: *defunds public transportation*
Us: I guess we'll buy cars now.
Oil billionaire (checking his profits from investing in gas): Wow, it's getting hot. This must be your fault for driving a gas car.
This is right on the mark. Oil companies, where a single factory can pollute more than a million (daily driving) cars in a year, uses a tactic called "Climate Shaming". Passing the blame to the people who use their products.
People would conserve or change if they could, but since these corporations routed all competition they planted themselves at the top of the energy food chain.
So them telling us we're to blame for climate catastrophe is like Lauren Boebert telling someone to "use their brain".
Capitalism made this mess. Corporate heads want to shift the blame and Government will only use cursory methods because they are raking in a continuous stream of millions by these very corporations.
But what if:
Us: we don't need permission from billionaires to have public transport. We can fund it ourselves using the money we would otherwise use to buy cars.
I completely agree with this.
A global catastrophe can only be solved with global governmental resources and determination. Yes, we can lobby and demand action; yes, we can do everything possible on a personal level to be responsible and proactive; yes, we can support science and reason.
BUT…world governments are STILL SUBSIDIZING fossil fuel industries, still bending over for oil producers and distributors, still “talking about” solutions while allowing billionaires to destroy our Earth.
Ask any Republican how they voted for Pres. Biden’s #climatecrisis efforts in his budget. Ask SCOTUS how they ruled for wetland protection. Ask Middle Eastern and Chinese & Russian (etc) leaders how they plan for their citizens to exist when fire, floods, famine, weather, oceanic & rain forest destruction, Sixth extinction events have changed the biome forever.
Alex - I have to take exception to your assertion that ("we"- the actual people- have little power to make the decisions necessary to fix things). It is the opinion of many that if “we” the actual people don’t take individual action to reduce global warming then all is lost. Just take the food we eat for example:
“Cutting animal-based foods in US diet by half could prevent 1.6 billion tons of GHG emissions by 2030” https://news.umich.edu/cutting-animal-based-foods-in-us-diet-by-half-could-prevent-1-6-billion-tons-of-ghg-emissions-by-2030/
“15.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture, comparable to all transportation (cars, trucks, trains, planes) combined.” https://ffacoalition.org/facts/animal-ag-emissions/
“A human who follows a #plantbased diet, produces 50% less CO2, uses 1/11 oil, 1/13 water and 1/18 the land, compared to a #meat eater” https://www.cowspiracy.com/facts
Please watch *Eating our way to extinction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaPge01NQTQ&t=10s
When it comes to the #ClimateEmergency - It is not hopeless & we, the people are not helpless! If we take individual action - without asking anyone!
This must see short film: “Wake Up, Freak Out – then Get a Grip” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnyLIRCPajM tells us that “preventing run-away Global Warming is the single most important task in all of human history - and it is up to us to do it. If we don’t then everything else we have achieved in our lives will become meaningless”!
The United nation says: “Everyone can help limit climate change. From the way we travel, to the electricity we use, the food we eat, and the things we buy, we can make a difference.” https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions
It’s up to us – WE, the actual people, to save planet Earth by becoming #ClimateConsumers who actively mitigate global warming by our daily choices of who we donate to, vote for, invest/divest/bank in; what we buy, eat, drive/pedal; to degasifying & electrifying everything; reduce, reuse, recycle; & consume less. https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/12/27/35-ways-reduce-carbon-footprint/
Greta Thunberg @gretathunberg says - “Politicians are not coming to the rescue of planet Earth” https://www.newstatesman.com/environment/2022/10/greta-thunberg-guest-edit-politicians-rescue-planet & “Saving the world is voluntary…we need billions of #climate activists” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/08/greta-thunberg-climate-delusion-greenwashed-out-of-our-senses
You are correct when you say “The small group of sociopathic billionaires driving the destruction would like nothing more than for us to blame ourselves for what they are actively doing to us, absolving them of blame.”
But that means only that “We, the actual people, must understand their motivation & then act in a way that helps the planet.
Robert Reich @rbreich Says “A handful of billionaires now have unprecedented control over banking, the food we eat, the health care we can access and, now, the information we receive…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_sjfchNsiM&t=15s
William Stanley Jevons said: “Value is created by the consumer, not the producer… the consumer is the ‘ultimate regulator of demand’” - https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/11/how-humans-became-consumers/508700/
ANN ARBOR—Replacing half of all animal-based foods in the U.S. diet with plant-based alternatives could reduce climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions 1.6 billion metric tons by 2030, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Tulane University. The report, "Implica
@alexwild It's hard because sooooo much guilt is shoved on the consumer.
"If you want to save the planet, you need to recycle. Nevermind that recycling is near impossible in your state. Nevermind in MOST states recycling does very little overall, and very few things actually get recycled. If you're mad about it, reuse. Nevermind that most things are built to become obsolete so you'll consume more.."
since all of these #bigoil corporations are people, why hasn't one of them died of an opioid overdose?
or died in a mass shooting?
or been killed after a police traffic stop?
or died as a result of a heat event?
or a flood?
@alexwild Nah, it's about choices around consumption. Put your money where your mouth is. (Sure, a billionaire has more money to make decisions like that, but that's not the point.)
I'm sure there's some shenanigans around policy decisions like public transport, but if more people wanted to use it I guarantee there'd be more of it. etc.
I call this 'the weaponisation of "we" '.
It's a flavour of victim blaming. We are expected to take the guilt, without any real power to make changes.
Of course I'm happy to do my bit, but my bit is very small compared to what governments and corporates could do if they took things as seriously as they should do.
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
they have succumbed to a mindset where “winning” means earning enough money to insulate themselves from the damage they are creating by earning money in that way. It’s as if they want to build a car that goes fast enough to escape from its own exhaust.
@alexwild This is one of those awkward facts that comes up whenever a decent-minded politician pushes a bill to eliminate single-use plastic, encourage recycling, incentivize EVs, etc.
Like, these are all examples of simple, useful, positive changes, but the fact is, they're all still just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic if Exxon, Koch Industries, et al, still collectively have no skin in the game.
I joined a recycling program oddly, didn't save the world...
I reinsulated my house - didn't save the world...
I changed my lightbulbs - didn't save the world...
Changed my van for a Mini - didn't...
Got a heat pump...didn't.
These were distractions from the scale of the changes needed.
Govt is meant to restrain the powerful for the common good...
Those bastards need some powerful restrainin'!
Boycott!
Strike!
Vote!
We all need to do bigger things!
@alexwild
Yes, they're killing the earth, not us!
However, we should personally ensure we're doing our part to mitigate climate change. But in the meantime, we need to end capitalism and establish an eco-friendly socialism.
@alexwild I drive a decade-old Honda. It's not a hybrid, nor an EV. But it does get 30+ MPG, which was the best I could afford at the time.
I switch off the lights when I'm not in the room, and used LED bulbs.
Maybe my next car will be a hybrid, when I can afford a new car.
But you know what would give me moral support? Of billionaires and centi-millionaires would park their private jets and fly commerical. Heck, they could even go First Class!
@alexwild Okay, I've read the entire thread and everyone has good points. I agree with all.
What's missing? For the first time in human history, there are 8 billion humans on this planet.
Imagine the garbage and human waste we generate in a day. Of any kind.
It's all of us. We're the deadliest organism on earth. WE are the polluters.
Few mention the problem of over-population in a damaged, closed eco-system.
Govts. and corporations know.
Science keeps us alive now.
It's still on us for not removing the bastards from control, power and influence.
The billionaires frying the planet:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/06/texas-public-policy-foundation-charles-koch-climate-clean-energy-fossil-fuels/
https://www.therichest.com/rich-powerful/the-10-richest-fuel-billionaires-in-the-world/
The billionaires fostering public corruption:
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/18/greg-abbott-texas-fundraising-governor-donors/
The financial centers subverting democracies:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dubai-uae-saudi-arabia-oil-ukraine-qatar-aa72c59
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/from-climate-denial-to-democracy-denial-big-oil-money-is-polluting-politics-and-the-planet/
On #TheReidout, Joy Reid & Rachel Maddow discussed what Trump would trade to get leniency & reduce jail time.
Give up the billionaires funding sedition & fascism.
Trump can save his skin by giving up the megadonors.
1. Larry Ellison who attended calls with Trump staffers in the prelude to Jan 6
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/20/larry-ellison-oracle-trump-election-challenges/
2. The 63 donors who funded Trump for 2020
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/12/trumps-billionaire-enablers-63-billionaires-worth-243-billion-who-bankrolled
3. The donors who orchestrated the fake electors (Scaife, Mellon)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/24/claremont-john-eastman-trump/
1/2
@alexwild personal responsibility is *always* misdirection.
Remember how we "solved" the ozone layer problem?
Turns out we didn't. It was only consumers who gave anything up, and the ozone hole didn't start closing at all until a few years ago, because corporations basically never stopped polluting.
@alexwild We're failing to bring the billionaires under control. We're failing to strip them of their power, and to redistribute their wealth. We're failing to tax them adequately, and to build a global anti-tax-avoidance system with teeth.
This is on us.
It's not "only" the billionaires. Many people don't actively try to reduce their Carbon emissions & choose less polluting alternatives. For example, nobody is forcing people to pull heavy caravans using their diesel vehicles. Or to fly on jets, etc.
Whilst there are plenty of folk selling products & ideas using "snake oil" ( misinformation \ greenwash), there are plenty of folk that are not choosing to regulate their own polluting behaviours (quite the opposite)
@alexwild *We* aren't using the tools we have to make said billionaires into mere irrelevant millionaires.
Voting participation is pretty pathetic generally. With luck Gen Z changes that long term.
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