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Comment by jeffbee | Hacker News Reader

Suburban middle class guy switching from driving an F150 to the Safeway to using an e-bike to get his groceries will not cause anyone to starve, but it will make a measurable dent in CO2 emissions. Do not frame this as an irreconcilable tension between starvation and plenty. The question is whether the average American consumer-bot can be coerced into not squandering the atmosphere at a rate 100x faster than the average human.

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The guy is living in the suburbs, which means they aren’t going to the store very often as they probably live far away from it. That means they are getting more than a few bags of groceries, they don’t need an F150 for sure, but they probably aren’t getting to carry this with an e-bike.

Better for the suburban guy to become a city guy and walk or bike to the grocery store a few times a week. They get better veggies that way as well.

Problem is, they're still relying on oil in a truck to deliver those groceries.

Guy in the suburb needs to turn their lawn into a full garden and become as self-sufficient as possible

Not as long as there are policymakers who aren’t making an equal or greater sacrifice.

You want to have an impact on the suburban middle class guy/consumer, start with less jet set Davos/Aspen environmentalists.

Coercion or deception by any means will only make them (and others) dig in deeper.

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