"When will people wake up?" "Politicians don't care!" "Rich people are just greedy!" "Animals are dying!" "Science deniers!"
What are those but moral and/or intellectual superiority declarations? And they're false too! We historically never cared or done as much for the environment as we do right now. Cars are getting stricter pollution norms on a schedule. Home appliances are rated by efficiency, we even banned some things like traditional light bulbs. Vacuum cleaners have a maximum draw power by law! Garbage collection is more expensive if not sorted. We pump money into renewable energy. We banned plastic cups and bags and even straws. Industry besides being regulated and checked is economically incentivized to consume as little energy as possible. We have naturally protected areas and species, we regulated fishing, etc, etc. We even have some clear positive results like pollution going down in big cities compared to last century.
Maybe it's not enough right now. But it's downright dishonest to say we don't care or do. The solutions left to be found are nowhere clear or easy. We don't have infinite resources to do things, we can't force every country to do the same, change takes time, etc.
>But it's downright dishonest to say we don't care or do.
If I exercise once a month and spend the other 29 days sitting around, is it dishonest to say I care about physical fitness?
>The solutions left to be found are nowhere clear or easy.
They're very clear, they're just not easy, because they're unpopular, because they involve people being less greedy and selfish. We could tax pollution and punish polluters far more than we do now. We could take some of the unimaginable wealth away from billionaires and use that money to improve infrastructure and other parts of society to be more green. But we won't, because greed and selfishness are virtues of modern life and we believe that a single person should reap all of the benefits from the work of the thousands of people below them.
It’s also a tragedy of the commons problem. If one country does the right thing, it doesn’t stop everyone else from carrying on as usual.
There are debates right now in Germany about how German steel producers could become uncompetitive internationally if stricter emissions requirements come into force as planned. I assume the same sort of debates crop up anywhere that makes any attempt to address climate change.
Investing in renewables and mandating efficiency is great, so I’m not picking on those parts of your post. But why do people talk about things like recycling, banning plastic waste, etc. in the same breath as discussion of CO2 emissions and climate change? They are completely separate topics.
In fact I think the recycling and banning plastics movements are actively harmful to climate change mitigation because they give people a false sense of security: “see, we’re doing something!”
Oh no, a problem that isn't clear or easy. Better wash our hands of it and call it a day, huh.
If we can convince countries to stop killing their own people, we can convince countries to curb their emissions. We are not doing close to enough, and the measures we have taken so far can hardly be counted as half-assed.
What are those but moral and/or intellectual superiority declarations? And they're false too! We historically never cared or done as much for the environment as we do right now. Cars are getting stricter pollution norms on a schedule. Home appliances are rated by efficiency, we even banned some things like traditional light bulbs. Vacuum cleaners have a maximum draw power by law! Garbage collection is more expensive if not sorted. We pump money into renewable energy. We banned plastic cups and bags and even straws. Industry besides being regulated and checked is economically incentivized to consume as little energy as possible. We have naturally protected areas and species, we regulated fishing, etc, etc. We even have some clear positive results like pollution going down in big cities compared to last century.
Maybe it's not enough right now. But it's downright dishonest to say we don't care or do. The solutions left to be found are nowhere clear or easy. We don't have infinite resources to do things, we can't force every country to do the same, change takes time, etc.