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by netsharc 1045 days ago
> people with lowest income wont be able to travel yet everyone else will Pay the ticket and go on their marry way.

I was discussing with an older friend the other week, we stumbled on the realization (maybe it's obvious) that progressing up the well-being ladder means consuming more energy and CO2, compare living in an unelectrified village with bathing in the river, and just sitting around with your friends for entertainment; with a villa with a hot shower, TV, and food flown from all over the world.

We were also discussing about how sad it is that when he was a travelling young man, he could still visit the "authentic" places, i.e. places with huts and no electricity, paved roads, or cars, but as time goes on those places now have brick buildings, TV, air-conditioning and asphalted roads, which is what the people living there wanted and got.

Now the poorer people of the world are screaming about the rich west saying "You've enjoyed all the luxuries and now you want to make it more expensive because 'save the planet', the one you ruined gaining all those luxuries? Not with us!". Even the working class French screamed about proposed increase of gasoline taxes...

1 comments

It’s normal to enjoy development if you come from a less privileged country. But it sometimes happens that consumers in those countries specifically demand examples of development that are more polluting than others, purely for the sake of social status. Think being able to buy a perfectly decent modern, fuel-efficient car, but instead buying a low-gas-mileage SUV because that lets them look like a big man to their community.

Suggesting to those consumers that they avoid the mistakes that the West made, and just leapfrog straight to the modern, efficient tech, is a bit like suggesting average Americans take public transportation: “What, you want me to do something poor people do?”

I'm fortunate to live in a place with ubiquitous excellent public transport and I've not driven a car in 5 years. I don't miss it at all, in fact it's amazing not having to deal with parking, maintenance, damage, cleaning, insurance, road tax, fuel prices.. 20€ a month covers all my travel needs now <3