Feeling guilty every time we can’t be perfect environmentalists isn’t sustainable. For a safer climate, we don't need to get every action right, but we do need to understand the greater scope of the crisis.
We should feel guilty, but not exclusively. This is just swinging from one extrem to another. Our lifestyle choices have a huge effect on the climate and our emissions. Especially our eating habits & how we move around. But also exporting our emissions to other countries is kinda greenwashing our own emissions. Everyone blames the big corporations, but ends up using whatever they produce. Their emissions aren’t coming from nowhere, they’re there to fulfill a demand. People need to stop pretending they cannot do anything just to feel better about themselves, especially when they throw their weekly or even daily steak onto the platter, drive their fat ass SUV or even truck or whatever other city tank they have, and then go shopping at Alibaba while voting for non climate friendly parties, presidents, ministers, etc. that actually bring change.
If you’re actually serious about this topic, do your part AND hold companies accountable. Vote for actual green parties and politicians. Don’t point fingers to continue living a bad lifestyle, that’s the same thing the climate denying boomers do.
People can’t just choose not to participate. People need to eat. That doesn’t mean that corporations need to burn down the rainforest to create farmland. Me needing to eat doesn’t justify the corporate decision to maximize profits at all costs. That’s a singular example, but it extends to every category outside of luxury goods. You need a smartphone to participate in modern society, you need a computer, in most US cities you need a car, you need clothes. Telling people to opt-out of the society that everyone else is participating in isn’t an adequate solution. Sure, you can choose the most sustainable and eco-friendly options for those things, assuming you can afford it, but for a lot of categories there are no options. The major corps own the entire industry and they’re all run similarly. We need changes at social, corporate, and governmental levels since an individual’s power is limited to 1 out of 8 billion. Of course it’s just my opinion, but an individual shouldn’t have to pay eight times what regular soybeans cost just to get soybeans that weren’t fertilized with the future of humanity.
I agree with the idea of voting for parties with strong green agendas… in principle. In practice, I find it hard to make it work because, at least in my country, pretty much every political party (even the conservatives) have environment policies in their agenda/manifesto and they all make sure to promise loads in this area to get your vote.
Everybody knows that’s not how it works: they will promise grand green initiatives and then deliver 10% of that at the end of their tenure, passing the buck to someone else. So yeah, you could punish them by voting someone else at the next election but they’ll do exactly the same (if they manage to get elected, that is).
Voting for “The Green Party” is not really an option either as these kinds of political organisation centred around a single problem rarely aim to run for government, so voting for them is a bit useless as the rest of their political agenda (education, health, economy…) is weak, nonexistent or batshit crazy (again, speaking for my country).
Depending on where you live, they don’t have to be the entire government. If they’d hold the majority they could easily work on environmental issues while leaving the rest of the government to their coalition partners. Some crazy people are, in the grand scheme of things, a lesser issue compared to climate change, which is way too much of a priority to let some of those stop you. It’s rougher in countries like the US and their two party system, because of how much they engage in contrarian bullshit.
We should feel guilty, but not exclusively. This is just swinging from one extrem to another. Our lifestyle choices have a huge effect on the climate and our emissions. Especially our eating habits & how we move around. But also exporting our emissions to other countries is kinda greenwashing our own emissions. Everyone blames the big corporations, but ends up using whatever they produce. Their emissions aren’t coming from nowhere, they’re there to fulfill a demand. People need to stop pretending they cannot do anything just to feel better about themselves, especially when they throw their weekly or even daily steak onto the platter, drive their fat ass SUV or even truck or whatever other city tank they have, and then go shopping at Alibaba while voting for non climate friendly parties, presidents, ministers, etc. that actually bring change.
If you’re actually serious about this topic, do your part AND hold companies accountable. Vote for actual green parties and politicians. Don’t point fingers to continue living a bad lifestyle, that’s the same thing the climate denying boomers do.
People can’t just choose not to participate. People need to eat. That doesn’t mean that corporations need to burn down the rainforest to create farmland. Me needing to eat doesn’t justify the corporate decision to maximize profits at all costs. That’s a singular example, but it extends to every category outside of luxury goods. You need a smartphone to participate in modern society, you need a computer, in most US cities you need a car, you need clothes. Telling people to opt-out of the society that everyone else is participating in isn’t an adequate solution. Sure, you can choose the most sustainable and eco-friendly options for those things, assuming you can afford it, but for a lot of categories there are no options. The major corps own the entire industry and they’re all run similarly. We need changes at social, corporate, and governmental levels since an individual’s power is limited to 1 out of 8 billion. Of course it’s just my opinion, but an individual shouldn’t have to pay eight times what regular soybeans cost just to get soybeans that weren’t fertilized with the future of humanity.
I agree with the idea of voting for parties with strong green agendas… in principle. In practice, I find it hard to make it work because, at least in my country, pretty much every political party (even the conservatives) have environment policies in their agenda/manifesto and they all make sure to promise loads in this area to get your vote.
Everybody knows that’s not how it works: they will promise grand green initiatives and then deliver 10% of that at the end of their tenure, passing the buck to someone else. So yeah, you could punish them by voting someone else at the next election but they’ll do exactly the same (if they manage to get elected, that is).
Voting for “The Green Party” is not really an option either as these kinds of political organisation centred around a single problem rarely aim to run for government, so voting for them is a bit useless as the rest of their political agenda (education, health, economy…) is weak, nonexistent or batshit crazy (again, speaking for my country).
So, how does one solve this conundrum?
Depending on where you live, they don’t have to be the entire government. If they’d hold the majority they could easily work on environmental issues while leaving the rest of the government to their coalition partners. Some crazy people are, in the grand scheme of things, a lesser issue compared to climate change, which is way too much of a priority to let some of those stop you. It’s rougher in countries like the US and their two party system, because of how much they engage in contrarian bullshit.