I think it's pretty obvious that nothing meaningful is going to be done.
As a species we're not willing to sacrifice enough to solve this problem and I think we're probably out of time at this point.
As a species we're not willing to sacrifice enough to solve this problem and I think we're probably out of time at this point.
It's not enough, but it's certainly meaningful.
https://about.bnef.com/blog/global-investment-in-the-energy-...
Dollars are great to incentive some consumption shift but the hard work is to be done in the consumption quantity.
It's our billionaires; the people who own our media and our politicians.
The overwhelming majority of scientists agree we need action.
Even with billions spent on propaganda, the majority of citizens believe we need action.
A tiny minority of our corporate media and politicians believe we need action, and their bosses/owners are happy to fire them if they speak up too well. Look what happened to Greta once she started talking about capitalism - instant blackout on coverage.
So again, this isn't a species problem. It's very much a billionaire problem, and they are not like us. Billionaires realize this, and we need to realize it as well.
What I'm really 'implying' (ie, saying explicitly) is that we have a billionaire problem. They're strip-mining our future, and using every tool money can buy to do so. This includes the tools in the media and political class. It's blatant and in our face now, after years of being behind the scenes.
Tackling climate change would've required people to potentially change their lives, possibly drastically and in doing so likely have a lower standard of living.
And they didn't want to.
They don't want to drive less, they don't want to fly less, they don't want smaller houses, they may say they want to do something about climate change but only so long as it doesn't actually meaningfully effect them.
I bet you can think of ways to reduce carbon output without changing square footage or miles driven.
Much of that environmental movement created the sprawl we live with today.
You can be an environmentalist (I am) and realize that much of the 'environmentalist movement' is self-serving nonsense; e.g., plastic recycling. It doesn't mean you don't care... it just means the world is less altruistic than you thought.
You look at California’s sprawl in the face of climate change, and you have to condemn a significant amount of the cliched 70’s environmentalism movements as as much about aesthetics as they were genuinely concerned about the environment.
The symbolic moment when humanity lost the fight against climate change was July 25, 1997. US Senate passed the Byrd–Hagel Resolution 95–0, effectively saying that it would not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Because the only superpower did not take the lead in the fight, it was doomed to fail.
In reality, only mass behavioral change by individuals will make a difference. There is no political change without mass individual behavioral change. There is no pressure on the rich or corporations without the masses giving a crap.
Your excuses are exactly the message corporations and the rich love to hear because it means their propaganda is working.
Yes, what you say is technically true, billionaires have infinite more power than you and I, and they could very well take care of a lot of bad things in the world, if they somehow chose to. And so, this power comes with responsibility as well, or so some think. Maybe we indeed could design a system that takes care that no individual rises to these unnatural heights. But, the incentives are not there. The incentives in the human say that more = better. Not in everyone, and people can certainly grow in character, a LOT - but we are talking a big number of people here, as long as there will be some that are highly functional, and also have a craving for infinite power, there will be such power imbalances in the world.
So again, the issue boils down to species. And if we survive ourselves, I expect this trend to continue.
Let me also bring up another species problem: Look at how much friction giving up straws caused. Fucking straws, man. I don't think it can get any more petty than that.