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Save the Planet, Put Down that Hamburger
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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Why do you think the oil & gas industry exists? To satisfy the needs of consumer. The industry isn't just burning oil just to fuck the climate up. It all comes down to the consumer.
Now about carbon footprint. The Paris agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5ºC. To do, we collectively have to emit less than 250 Gt (from the start of 2023). That means each of the 8 billion persons on the planet get a 1.16 t/year budget until 2050, and then zero.
You cannot reach this footprint while eating meat like the average American does. You cannot reach it by keeping driving, or even owning a car. You cannot just hope anymore to keep same lifestyle, which was only made affordable by an era of cheap fossil energy.
Of course you can keep blaming other in all caps text but that's not going to change anything, nor inspire change. Are the companies to blame? Sure. But companies are made by people, and are all eventually financed by the consumer. You. Me. Us.
https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/11/08/billionaires-responsible-for-million-times-more-emissions-than-average-person-oxfam-report#:~:text=Billionaires%20are%20responsible%20for%20a,emissions%20of%2085%20million%20cars.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/260363/largest-corporate-air-polluters-in-the-united-states/
It's billionaires and corporations dude, stop blaming individual people. Only regulations on industry can save us now. Otherwise we're fucked, and yelling at people to change does nothing. Once industries are regulated, there's a higher chance of being able to reduce the emissions of individuals. Right now it's akin to pissing in the wind.
By saying "only regulations on industry can save us now", you're placing your faith on a top-down system which has already failed us.
The article claims the bottom 90% produce an average of 2.76 tCO2/year. That's still twice too much. Again, I did not the say the billionaires and corporations were not partly responsible. But what makes the billionaires and corporations rich and able to do so are the consumers paying for it.
To blame everything on someone else is choosing what's most convenient for you. It's wrong and self-centered. If you're saying "someone is doing worse than me, hence I have no reason to improve myself", then everyone but the worst won't change. The correct mentality is "I will act in such a way that if everyone were to do the same, everything would work out" (also known as the categorical imperative).