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by goldenbikeshed
2286 days ago
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Fossil fuels only account for about 70% of global CO2 emissions. Replacing all of them with renewable energy sources will lower emissions but also bring more emissions (e.g. from cement needed to build those power plants). Our current global economic system is pretty much single mindedly focused on exponential GDP growth. As long as this system persists, all that new clean energy will be used to produce more useless disposable gadgets, driving up more emissions from methane (from all the new trash produced with all that energy).
What we need to stop climate change is to lower consumption and to lower production. This is very much possible while also increasing quality of life. Technology can help with getting that into people's head, but a political will has to be there first, and that won't be possible without challenging the current economic system. |
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I don't disagree. It's in part a framing issue. For decades the message has been "you should feel guilty for wanting things, and to save the world everyone needs to de-industrialize and return to the lifestyle of a medieval peasant." (I'm exaggerating just a little bit, but not much.)
The mainstream response has been similar to how people respond to other moral shaming campaigns: pretend to play along and engage in a lot of token signaling gestures (like banning plastic straws or recycled disposable cups) but otherwise ignore it. Actual behavior does not change, but you get this gloss of fake ineffective feel-good junk.
The developing world's response has been a bit more pointed: "fuck you, we're poor." They're not going to listen to a bunch of rich westerners tell them they need to stay poor to save the planet.