this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 222 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (17 children)

Every time I see these I see these climate change related issues (which is now multiple times a day), I get the same sinking feeling in my stomach like I'm behind on work and don't have enough time to do it and I'll soon be in trouble for letting things get too far behind. That feeling keeps me up, causes me stress, and is generally not a comfortable way to live. This just fucking sucks.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I hate to say it, but I keep avoiding articles about climate change for this reason. I can't do it every time, obviously, but it just gives me such stress. We're all so powerless while corporations destroy our planet.

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Have you tried separating your recycling out? It'll help offset the cruise ships that each put out around 250,000 cars worth of straight up pollution a year, without factoring in other impacts.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And thats just the cruise ships imagine how much cargo ships output, admitedly cargo ships actually serve a purpose. Cruise ships are idols to our decadence and hubris.

I dream of bloody knives and car bombs.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Praise our cargo ship overlords for bringing clothes that rip after the third wash and electronics that malfunction after half a year to us!

Joke aside, they are integral to the global economy, but we could cut back a lot on wasteful production and consumption, reducing the transportation needed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Absolutely, food is one thing but cheap shitty tech is another. Frankly speaking ive never encountered a situation where the cheap shitty stuff was any better than the older expensive stuff.

But im also into weird old tech so the fact that ill use a beat up old car radio instead of a 10 buck radio from big lots is not saying much.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Well thank fuck for that... I was worried for a moment there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The solution to that, the systemic impersonal solution, is going to be ending the production of single use plastics. While there's little you can do about recycling, you can imagine if you'll be complaining about that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also if we removed single use plastics, but didn't dramatically cut back on everything we do that uses them, then we'd create more pollution with alternative methods trying to fill the gap. A global change is unavoidable, whether it is chosen or forced upon everyone by circumstance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is part of the issue that a lot of people don’t get.

Plastics are, largely, petrochemicals. We have plastics because we have oil.

Use glass because it’s more recyclable? Glass is heavier and more fragile, meaning more cost to ship and more breakage in transit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah... we use single use plastics because they're basically an industrial miracle production wise. Dirt cheap, super easy to use, innumerable applications... and all the drawbacks are post-production and someone else's problem. A tough addiction to break.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Use glass because it’s more recyclable? Glass is heavier and more fragile, meaning more cost to ship and more breakage in transit.

Meaning more local production and collection.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

I largely tuned out of climate change news a long time ago. I still care about it. I vote for it and have donated relatively large amounts of money to environmental charities. But otherwise nothing I do makes a difference.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (26 children)

Don't be too harsh on yourself, big corporations are the main cause of climate change. Unless we all collectively decide to give these companies a wake up call, I'm afraid there's very little you can do alone

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Is there anything reasonable that we (those who have interest in living "like before" and won't die of age within 30 years) can achieve? I feel like many things are very out of reach, and the population is just too heterogeneous to agree on something. Older folks where I live just do not give a fuck, and elected someone whose major interest is in removing rights from people they actively hate. At least one big city where I live has been without water nor electricity for several hours (days?) because the heat has messed out the infrastructure, and I feel like even in my country barely anybody is talking about it... It's just very discouraging, I want to shift my perspective, but it's not easy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, there are things you can and should be doing.

People blaming ‘corporations’ while not doing anything themselves are a huge part of the problem. Out of the 100 largest corporations contributing the most CO2, almost all of them are fuel and energy based.

So, number one - drives less, or don’t drive at all. This might change where or how you live.

Number 2, buy 100% green power or install your own PV.

These 2 things alone can be contributing up to 50% of your own greenhouse emissions. This isn’t ‘corporations’, it’s us buying power and driving around.

After that everyday consumption is huge. So don’t buy shit to just throw it away. Only buy what’s necessary. Spend more on fewer things, and things that will last.

And finally, do these things because you care. If enough people make some changes. It starts to seem normal. Then others do it too. And vote.

The number of smart, tech savvy people here who think some boats and random companies are the source of impending catastrophe are sadly mistaken. The actual information on what’s causing and contributing is well researched and easy to find. You’ll be able to find an online calculator for your country which will give an averaged breakdown of your own emissions. You can use that to keep drilling into what actions will have the biggest impacts.

Everyone needs to make changes to the way we live. Some need to go first for others to follow.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

@min0nim @IrrationalAndroid

New Oxfam research finds that just 125 billionaires are each responsible for one million times more greenhouse gas emissions than the average person. from here https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/stories/who-is-responsible-for-climate-change/

When carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, flaring, and cement production are ranked by nation, "the US is by far the largest historical emitter, responsible for over 20% of all emissions, and the EU is close behind". from here https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/11/18/1063443/responsible-climate-change-charts/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Big corporations....that we keep rewarding with our money, incentivizing them to not change what they're doing. Human consumption is the largest driver of climate change.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (10 children)

And the worst part is, average citizens like yourself aren't a massive burden on the environment. It's people like Elon Musk flying personal jets across the world for dinner, who are actively contributing to the death of the planet.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The jets are bad but what is worse are the handle full of billionaires and csuite execs who have the money and power to decide company policies and bribe politicians and governments: lobbying, independent expenditures, gala dinners, super pacs, incentives, revolving doors, private fundraising, paid speeches; to look the other way so they can pollute however much they want.

Nothing is Ethical under Capitalism.

Social Democracy is better but still exports the suffering to the global south.

Workers of the world must unite to over come the absolute insanity of the capital class.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

And how are we supposed to do that? ~Strawberry

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Unfortunately, everyone participates and it adds up. If you want to compare such personal consumption like jets, then the rich account for about 15% of the global emissions.

Here's a chart:

from this report: https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/carbon-inequality-in-2030-per-capita-consumption-emissions-and-the-15c-goal-621305/

The share of total global emissions associated with the consumption of the richest 1% is set to continue to grow, from 13% in 1990, to 15% in 2015 and 16% in 2030.

If you want to include the rich's capital, which you should, because that has to change:

the bottom 50% of the world population emitted 12% of global emissions in 2019, whereas the top 10% emitted 48% of the total. Since 1990, the bottom 50% of the world population has been responsible for only 16% of all emissions growth, whereas the top 1% has been responsible for 23% of the total. While per-capita emissions of the global top 1% increased since 1990, emissions from low- and middle-income groups within rich countries declined. Contrary to the situation in 1990, 63% of the global inequality in individual emissions is now due to a gap between low and high emitters within countries rather than between countries. Finally, the bulk of total emissions from the global top 1% of the world population comes from their investments rather than from their consumption. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-00955-z

But if you imagine that the petite bourgeois lifestyle of McMansion in suburbia, cars and driving around everywhere, eating boatloads of primary calories, and the rest of the consumption isn't contributing, you should read more. Here's a start: https://www.versobooks.com/books/3691-the-imperial-mode-of-living

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Really? The feeling I get when I read articles like this is a resigned feeling of "No shit, we've only been hearing warnings of this for the past 30 years. People are fucking stupid"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There used to be plausible deniability. "Maybe it won't really be that bad, even though we should be acting in case it is."

Now it's more of a "I wonder where the various lines are and how many we've already crossed, which one will be next, and how soon we'll notice it."

Have you noticed the number of insects is way down this year? Maybe I'm wrong. They do still gather in the lights (which might be another part of the fucking problem...) but there just doesn't seem to be as many as there used to be this year.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The irony is that if we did act as if it would be that bad, it wouldn’t be that bad because we would have mitigated the worst of it, and it’d become a laughing-stock for non-critical thinkers.

See also: Y2K…or more recently, comparing COVID death rates for vaccinated vs unvaccinated populations.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can only do so much. Life was set up this way for us by countless generations before us. You can reduce your energy requirements, reduce/reuse/recycle, but it will only help so much at the individual level. Never stop trying. Never stop trying to convince your friends and family to reduce their footprint. I bug my SO every time they put something recyclable in the trash or they buy something we don't need.

But the world is burning because of greed and we can't individually put an end to that. Live your life, do what you can, share love. It's the best we can do right now.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

I’ve just started to cut off feelings about it entirely - I can’t handle seeing this stuff everyday. I’m just resigned that it’s too late and live your life while you can.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The key is to learn to deal with your death anxiety.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a lot easier said than done

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Magic mushrooms can help.

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