The narrative that the average joe is to blame for this shit is so infuriating to me. Myself and 50,000 other people could start walking everywhere and it very likely wouldn’t come close to offsetting the emissions of Amazon’s fleet of trucks.
Yes individual consumption matters, but there’s a very small group of individuals called billionaires that contribute 1000x more than you or I ever could. BP invented the idea of the individual carbon footprint.
The average person is the reason Amazon exists, so… That’s still on the average person.
This is what people miss in this false dichotomy. Businesses only exist because demand exists. Countries need to start passing unpopular things like Carbon Taxes to seal the deal against climate change by hitting consumer demand and raising prices
Oddly enough, without changing buying habits or consumer demand, I think the Amazon truck is a superior option.
- Instead of thousands of individual trips to the store for small things, a single vehicle delivers everything
- Instead of many hyper-local stores packed with things that may or may not eventually be sold, only things that have been purchased are shipped and transported
The trick, as you said, is to change consumer behavior and people balk at doing that, especially when it will cost more and income inequality hits harder than ever. Tax the rich, level the playing field, and the rest gets much easier.
I’m not demanding products which harm the environment made using methods which harm the environment. Businesses make the choice to produce those things instead of carbon-neutral environmentally friendly products, so they are more at fault than the individual who buys the thing. It’s extremely difficult for an individual to be able to uncover the environmental implications of everything you buy and do. The only real solution is to pass laws which properly account for the harmful externalities in the production cost, such as carbon tax. That will steer both businesses and consumers towards more sustainable decisions.
I also am demanding similar products, which is why capital has already shifted (and continues to shift) toward green/sustainables.
We don’t need laws to provide for externalities of consumption in most markets. Most markets are being changed by consumer demand.
What would be most effective is carbon pricing. Unfortunately, that is a non-starter with most voters as it essentially means price increases across the board (which would actually be more helpful during inflation, but people never see it that way)
Be real mate. Thats not how it works.
Suppliers create the demand.
People werent demanding smartphones before smartphones got invented.
Most new things are shunned by most people until they slowly gain popularity and then the demand starts to exist.
You are stating the hypothesis of capitalism whilst ignoring the conclusion.
Suppliers do not create demand lol
Some of us were adults in 08 when lack of demand crippled the world
If you want to kill BP, stop buying oil. The Amazon fleet is about 70,000 vehicles and they’re transitioning to electric right now.
Consumers drive markets. Mega corporations aren’t polluting for the fun of it. They do it because it’s a byproduct of them taking our money. Stop giving them money and they stop polluting. Why else would they stop?
“Voting with your dollar” is bullshit. Just stop buying oil? Ok, let me go to the no oil store and buy a new car that doesn’t run on gas and isn’t made with any plastic. Let me spend my entire 5 dollars worth of disposable income to buy a new vehicle. And then take that vehicle to the store that has 0 petroleum products. No cans lined with PFAS, no plastic bags, no plastic packaging, no products made entirely of plastic. Never fly again in your life, or take the bus. Don’t you even think about eating out again. Live life as a hermit, make your own goods, provide your own services and maintinence to yourself to ensure an oil free existence. Better start soon too, the planets only getting hotter. Rinse and repeat x8,000,000,000.
Markets are driven by capital. Those with the most capital have the greatest influence. Your pittance of a wage isn’t going to change a damn thing. 10% of the global population has 52% of the purchasing power. Even if the other 90% of us all united together at once, about a single thing, we still wouldn’t have the purchasing power to overwhelm them. You can’t reform a system that’s made to perpetuate consumption and pollution. It’s cheaper to pollute by design. Do you think it’s a coincidence that bills meant to make polluting more expensive either don’t get passed or are so rife with loopholes they’re effectively useless? Pull your head out of your ass. If there was ever a time this shit show could be reformed, it’s long gone.
>Just stop buying oil? Ok, let me go to the no oil store and buy a new car that doesn’t run on gas
You mean an electric car?
There are options for consumers. Some of them cost more right now, others are an investment that pay off later. But those and not the polluting option and low and behold the markets change. Why do you think oil companies are starting to diversify more
While true that they’re not polluting for fun, many corporations will try to avoid any anti-pollution measure that will lose them money. To the point where they spend billions of dollars every year to lobby governements, enviromental protection organizations, and drag out regulations with lawsuits. Because in the long run it’s usually worth it for them to pollute, as long as the investors see enough profits in the short term.
Of course they will. Corporations do not care. They will only do things that make them money. Either because governments threaten to take away their money. Or because markets change and they’re no longer making money so they have to change.
We have seen this with so so so many industries over the centuries. Consumers change behaviours and businesses move to fit their needs. If everyone here started eating less meat there would be more investment in plant based ideas. Because they don’t care about what the impacts of their company are. They care what you and I are buying.
> The Amazon fleet is about 70,000 vehicles and they’re transitioning to electric right now.
They are not doing this because of the goodness of their heart. They are doing it because of $$$$. Gas costs more, so it’s more economical to switch to electric.
Rest assured, if there are other places where it’s more economical to strip mine the environment and increase the rate of climate change, they will switch to that cheaper method in a heartbeat, if they aren’t already doing so.
That is my entire point. Companies only do things that get them money.
Consumers drive markets, companies follow markets. Change how you buy, companies change how they pollute.
If it was an option, I wouldn’t buy oil. I can’t just up and buy an EV even if I wanted to (I do). Not that that’s even a completely green option. Also, 5000 EVs vs 10 times as many trucks in the whole fleet is cool, but it doesn’t make me want Amazon to burn to the ground any less.
You existing is why those companies use that energy.
I agree that it’s BS to put the blame on the average person’s behavior.
But the blame is on us collectively.
We use a lot of energy.
Billionaires and corporations lobby governments and donate to superPACs(legal bribery) to have them promote their business interests and protect their capital.
Infinite growth is not sustainable on a finite planet. The billionaires aren’t going to save us. Buying stuff is not going to save us. Neoliberalism and Capitalism is not going to save us.
Not to support Amazon, but those trucks on optimized delivery routes are likely better for the environment than individials each driving their own cars to box stores…
If only we had some nationalized way to deliver parcels on an optimized route…
either way the average joe is gonna need to do something cuz the billionaires wont. lets just kill them
you do realise that these companies do these things because customers buy them, right? If you didn’t buy stuff on amazon, there wouldn’t be any amazon trucks around.
you do realize that I don’t buy stuff from Amazon and there are still Amazon trucks around right?
Yes, you are correct in that a single individual’s action will make no difference, just like your single vote makes no difference either. However if everyone does their part it can make a massive difference.
While your individual contribution makes no difference, you still should try to do your part. Yes, change takes work and a bit of sacrifice. Just like how it takes time out of your day to do research on candidates and go to the polls.
If you don’t do the work, it doesn’t make you smart or clever, it just makes you an asshole taking advantage of others.
Try shipping vessels. I think I read that 7 of them are responsible for an incredible high percentage of all emissions or something
Sulfate emissions.
Which are bad, but are not CO2 emissions.
The entire shipping industry is a small fraction of the US’s automobile emissions.
The rule of thumb I was taught many years ago in operations management class was that shipborne cargo freight, on a TEU basis, uses less fuel to get from Hong Kong to Los Angeles as it did to deliver that freight to the store in North America. It’s 100x less impactful in terms of CO2 output as trucking.
I think that billionaires are some kinde of problem but megacorps (big 9, Nestle, cocacola, fashion industry) are much worst :(
Companies sell to people though, who willingly buy from them unsustainable products. But I think it’s a bit much to expect people make this choice every day, I prefer at least for some things make a regulation. It’s like “normal” pollution, we do not expect people to figure out which company relies on less toxic leakage, why is CO2 pollution any different?
Hate to be devils advocate here, but even if billionaires contribute 1000x each, there is just one of them for 1000x1000x1000x1000x people so in total their contribution does not matter. What matters is their business choices which favor unsustainable practies for billions of people, so eventually they have a huge effect, just not directly.
While true that total consumption is less than the rest of the population, billionaires have a very large influence and people try to mimic them. If they don’t set an example and still fly everywhere in a private jet, those 1000x1000x1000x1000x people will also say f it, if a billionaire can’t do it, I certainly can’t.
If we are talking about giving an example, while I agree in part, I also find there are people more popular and influential than billonaires. Half of the top 10 richest people are not really public personas at least from where I stand. Conversely, you do not need to be billionaire to produce 10000x CO2, you need some money but not that much. These people need to be also in attention focus. Even just middle upper class who like to fly a lot, the difference it makes is huge. Billionaires do their own part, but through ownership of large companies and their relation to customers, I think is more important way in which they make a difference.
> Myself and 50,000 other people could start walking everywhere and it very likely wouldn’t come close to offsetting the emissions of Amazon’s fleet of trucks.
Not if you keep ordering shit from amazon it won’t. It will prevent 50,000 people’s worth of transportation emissions, though.
Don’t sell yourself short. You’re more responsible for the situation than you want to admit.
> there’s a very small group of individuals called billionaires that contribute 1000x more than you or I ever could.
Wrong. The top 0.1% pollute 10x as much (per capita) as the top 10% (excluding the top 0.1%). Source
> BP invented the idea of the individual carbon footprint.
If the strongest argument against an idea is “the wrong people came up with it”, the idea is probably pretty good.
you don’t know me buddy. I don’t use Amazon and I pretty much only drive to and from work. good fucking luck not giving Amazon money given that AWS hosts millions of companies websites.
/e ALSO top 0.1% isn’t a small enough group to address what I’m talking about. Try top 0.01%, that’s about where you’ll find billionaires.
According to your source, the top 1% emit 50 tonnes of CO2/capita/yr. The top 0.1% emit 200 tonnes of CO2/capita/yr. That is still an insane increase the wealthier one becomes.
Not saying that one should not try to limit their emissions (we definitely should stop buying stuff from amazon/big companies, if not to limit emissions, at least to break their monopolies), but there is definitely some low hanging fruit in that top percentage (e.g. having 800 people limit emissions is going to be harder when you have the same effect by just limiting the 8 at the top).
Also you’re last sentence is quite hostile, BP definitely came up with it to avoid their responsibility and pivot it to other people. The idea might not be ‘bad’ per se, but if you do it so to avoid your own responsibility, it is definitely bad practice (which, again, is why each of us should try to limit our carbon emissions)
> Also you’re last sentence is quite hostile, BP definitely came up with it to avoid their responsibility and pivot it to other people. The idea might not be ‘bad’ per se, but if you do it so to avoid your own responsibility, it is definitely bad practice (which, again, is why each of us should try to limit our carbon emissions)
Of course. By the same token, individuals trying to avoid their own responsibility by parroting “big oil invented the idea of a carbon footprint” is definitely bad practice.
This is just the same buck-passing that BP was doing.
You are personally responsible for your own contribution.
You are doubly responsible for giving money to BP or Chevron.
You have control over some things in your life. If you choose to live like the average american driving everywhere, eating meat, and inefficiently climate controlling a building that is far bigger than needed and poorly insulated, then you are choosing to emit an amount of CO2 that will contribute to several deaths.
You are also directly giving the oil, gas, and meat industries the resources to kill many more.
Just because BP passed the buck, doesn’t exonerate you.
I’m sure this will spur society to prioritise the future viability of our species survival and the state of the environment over short term quarterly profits right? … right?
People won’t care until it’s in their backyard. A couple of ads from BP and they’ll blame themselves a bit then start “recycling” their water bottles not knowing that recycling is bullshit.
most of australia’s recycling ends up in Indonesia being melted down and thus polluting the environment anyway.
The problem is, it’s already in our backyards. From record breaking forest fires, to record breaking heat, and record breaking droughts…
hey, but how far does your backyard go? Don’t you feel at least for your city, your country? Why not something bigger?
Most companies do not optimize to exist long term. Another, longer lasting, entity needs to take charge of this. Like humanity itself, except it needs some organization, reflecting legitimate consenus. The problem is that it needs to be enforcable, and world govenment with punitive powers is not an unproblematic idea.
I think one big problem is that Earth has become too small, but this fact and it’s implications did not quite get absorbed. People act on in instinctively by favoring space exploration, but it’s pursued by most adventurous ones, and not in unproblematic ways.
This month is the planet’s hottest on record so far.
This feels like people opining about mass shootings.
Yes it’s a problem. No one cares enough to vote differently in order to change it, so there’s nothing we can do but fend for ourselves.
Plenty people care enough to vote. Plenty of people also work very hard (and have been doing so for long before you or I were around) to disenfranchise and prevent the votes of those exact people.
See you next year guys for a new record!
My son is 8 years old. Every summer when he is drenched in sweat, I tell him to enjoy his coolest summer.
I hope things turn around.
Please stop filling your son with existential dread, he’s far too young. Sometimes things are better left unsaid, it’s not like he has any polluting to stop.
Existential dread is the correct emotional response to inevitable, existential danger.
Feeling safe for the sake of feeling safe is just a comfortable delusion.
I, too, agree with the scientists that we’re all well and truly fucked.
