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by gspr 2157 days ago
I'll bite on your last sentence. Why?
2 comments

I presume he means you are adding to climate change.

What if you are flying an endangered animal some where it can reproduce? Is that ok?

> I presume he means you are adding to climate change.

Everything is a matter of degree. Calling people hypocrites for ever flying is riduculous.

Not for just flying, for "thinking that the existence of life on Earth is the paramount moral good" and flying.
Probably (unnecessary?) ecological impact and using fossil fuels
What is "necessary"? I, too, regard global warming as the biggest threat to our species. I still don't think that makes someone a hypocrite for flying.
I think maintaining a quality of life for humanity is necessary. Sacrificing everything in the name of the environment is paperclip maximizing - what we really want is to find the optimal level of attention to the environment that gives us the best value over time.
I personally don't have a strong opinion here but do feel like most people lose track of the global picture yet get fixated on individual problems. I think this happens because we don't have a measure of the impact of our activity, we just vaguely feel like some actions are "good" and some "bad".

Corny example, recycling is considered "good", yet still has a net negative impact, but for most people it's enough to feel good and stop worrying.

Very few things are strictly necessary, but many are definitely unnecessary: perverted maximisation of profits, planned obsolescence, avoidable food waste etc. Tech example: avoidable software bloat causing global increase in energy consumption.