[shawnb576]

OK well then, we'd better not do anything about it! <s/>

I don't think this is strictly true. Oil production is not fully fungible due to all kinds of issues including sanctions and production capacity.

But this is also a strawman - this isn't saying "we should shut them all down" or even begging that question.

At a minimum it's saying "there were people and companies who intentionally chose to mislead the public on a potentially existential issue - perhaps there should be some reckoning for that?"

[fwungy]

https://www.aei.org/economics/environmental-energy-economics...

I never said don't do anything.

What I believe is that we need to balance carbon elimination w/ carbon mitigation and not put all our eggs in the elimination basket.

We've got one chance to do this right.

[smackeyacky]

I suspect we had one chance to do it right, but the organised and widespread suppression and misinformation campaigns of these companies basically made that impossible.

Now we're faced with a range of unpalatable choices and a population fiercely divided about what to do.

Great job oil companies.

[WastingMyTime89]

This is a common but erroneous thinking. Man influenced climate change is an ongoing process.

It would have been great to start doing something thirty years ago to avoid some of what’s happening now but we didn’t. Now we still have to do something or it will get even worse.

This is not a throw your arms in the air and wait for the end while screaming situation.

[smackeyacky]

Not advocating throwing my hands in the air, but the deliberate delay has narrowed our choices at a rate faster than technology has come to the rescue.

There is going to be a lot of complaints as choices keep getting removed and decisions forced upon us by the escalating crisis. If you are a freedom loving libertarian, you are not going to enjoy the next few decades. Which would be deliciously ironic if it wasn't such a monstrous tragedy.

[WastingMyTime89]

I’m not sure I agree with this take.

What we are starting to meaningfully see, at least in Europe, is regulations which actually have teeth regarding where investments go and what companies can do regarding emissions and sustainability.

It means some things are going to either get more expensive or downright disappear but I wouldn’t call that a significant curb on freedom.

It’s more akin to not being able to use lead in plumbing than living under an authoritarian regime. Sure there will be less meat on the menu but, well, c’est la vie.

[smackeyacky]

Hard disagree. We are well beyond the point where farting around on the edges of consumer behaviour can ever make a dent in reversing climate change.

Blaming consumers buys into the big emitters disinformation campaigns. Its not our fault.

The big emitters need to be curbed hard and fast. Our governments so far have been unwilling, complicit or unable to do so.

Its going to require a mass, popular movement to shut down coal mining worldwide, to restrict air travel, to localise food production and reinvigorate ground based mass transit. Nobody can make that happen as individuals at the checkout.