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Comment by mikeash | Hacker News Reader

Changing my own behavior won't do anything noticeable. Several billion people need to change their behavior. That's why people want governments to get involved.

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When I went vegan in 1991 you couldn't buy soya milk in a supermarket. Now every supermarket has its own brand.

Political agitation moves the Overton Window [1], if you sit back and wait, nothing will happen.

That said, you will need a plan on how a billion Indians can have a fridge and an indoor cooker without impact.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

> noticeable

Of course you can't save the planet alone. However, researchers did the math and found every ton of CO2 eliminates 3m² of Arctic sea ice. Multiply this with average sea ice thickness (>1m) and start to take care of your personal block of sea ice.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aag2345

What do I have to change in order to save a ton? How much driving is that?

It's how far your car goes on 102 gallons of gasoline.

Edit: 102 US gallons, which are different from UK gallons.

My point is that this is the message that needs to be said. If everyone would try to drive 2000 fewer miles this year, we can make a real difference. Or can we? Or maybe it's only 200 miles per person?

> real difference

Saving the climate should become a sport.

Maximising my MPG rating was a sport for me, until partner crashed the car. I managed 75 MPG (UK gallons) reliably. I sold the replacement car as soon as I could once she moved to California, went back to just cycling (I live in the UK).

Looking at the makeup of CO2 emissions [1] (ignoring methane and other factors) it seems that it makes the most sense to avoid unneccessary heating and electricity consumption (which most people will already do because it's good for your wallet) and cut back on driving (which most people don't). For agriculture and industry, the two big other factors, you're probably right: There's not much a single person can do.

[1]: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-05/global_em...

Agriculture and industry are just producers to your consumption. They produce the meat/dairy and electricity you use. So there is definitely a lot consumers can do by personal choices. But of course regulation is needed too.

There's a lot consumers can do. There's little a consumer can do. Therein lies the difficulty.

You can take responsibility for your actions and how they affect others. No one else can. What you do when others don't know is integrity.

Generations of people saying what you said got us here. Don't you wish they had thought and acted differently?

Well, yes and no. This issue suffers from the tragedy of the commons. If I reduce my emissions significantly it will have zero impact if I'm the only one doing it. The only thing it does is help me feel better about myself and lowers my standard of living. The only way to realistically solve this is collective action and that's what the government is for. I actually think that we also have been to gentle about this topic on general. I'm in favor of sanctions against countries who refuse to lower emissions.

Wishing doesn't help. Changing my thoughts and actions doesn't change other people's thoughts and actions. Sure, it's bad if everyone thinks this way, but I can't fix that.

This is a standard collective action problem. Haranguing people who point that out doesn't solve the problem.

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