[lm28469]

In a world where individualism and short term profit is valued above all.

What do you think happens when we buy asian gadgets on amazon with same day delivery, mindless pollution, from the first step to the last.

Go out, and look at the streets, hundreds of cars with (90% of the time) a single person in it. Moving 2 tons of steel for a 80 kilos meatbag, now that's efficiency. We could almost ignore that if it wasn't releasing toxic gases straight in the worst place possible: the exact place where most of us live.

What about importing bananas and mango from the other side of the globe ? How come I can buy Evian water in the US; are we really shipping water from Europe to America ?

Meat at every meal, well meat is good so why not, plus it's cheap now that we mass produce it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_p...

And the list goes on forever, but who cares, convenience is king, as long as it's cheap.

[jsnk]

Short term thinking? Yes. But individualism doesn't seem like the problem given China and India are more collectivist than most Western societies.

[lotsofpulp]

I think the commenter means that doing what's easiest or best for you at the expense of society (now or in the future). And it doesn't have to just be for yourself, it can be for your family or tribe over others, and it still has the same effect.

[hassan_shaikley]

The problem is externalities. Not convenience.

[Brain_Thief]

I find this statement confusing. Is it not generally true that optimizing for maximum convenience (coupled with lowest monetary cost) often corresponds with an increase in negative externalities?

[bryanlarsen]

If you buy your mango frozen, it's quite likely that the majority of the transportation CO2 is the trip from the grocery store to your home. From the plantation to the grocery store it's being transported in large quantity by highly efficient trains, boats and semi-trailers.

[lm28469]

Yeah we can continue to lie (to ourselves ?) and perpetuate these ideas. Or we can look at the facts:

- https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/cargo-container-shipping...

- https://medium.com/@victoria27/heres-how-much-pollution-ship...

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shippi...

And then you witness that half of the bananas delivered to your office every week ends up in the trash because they're too ripe, but yeah, the ship that moved them from latin america to europe was efficient, no biggie.

Just like half of the cheap, low quality things imported from asia that breaks after a few weeks (basically 70% of amazon inventory)

[geoka9]

And the irony is that the people who have kids tend to be the ones who care the least about these things (whether because for them it's much harder to do anything about it or because they are ignorant). Talk about loving kids.

[lm28469]

I think we barely have time to think about it in the first place, when you're in the sleep, work, entertainment routine, you're much more inclined to watch some netflix than to do something about "important" issues. Add kids in the mix and you're done. You either have to work extra time to be able to get them a decent life or stop working to take care of them, either way the future of humanity isn't really a priority.

You can take personal steps to reduce your footprint sure, but as long as the leaders play their "economical growth at all cost" game we're doomed to fail.

[vasco]

The people who have kids are also the ones causing the most harm to the environment. The single most effective way to diminish your impact on the environment is to not reproduce.

[ComputerGuru]

It's also the most selfish way, in some regard. My wife and I just recently had our first after some time, and one of the biggest factors involved was how selfish it would be not to. A lot of parents feel the same way; you need to appreciate that it's not in black and white and there are multiple perspectives.

[geoka9]

The future for them is very bleak. The pros/cons of facing it is a hard decision to make. Personally, I'd hate to make that decision for someone else, let alone a person I would end up caring about the most.

[sanbor]

I would say that it depends in many factors. It could be that a single wealthy person in a city in USA consumes and produces waste as a family of 10 in a rural area in Africa. Thus seems that there are plenty of other ways to diminish your impact.