Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

There is a massive difference between spending my money taking my kids to the local open farm with shows, animals to pet etc or if I spend the same money hosting a party with lots of junk decorations that gets thrown away afterwards.

Same with spending my money creating a house that is well insulated and built to last vs skipping on quality and adding lots of high maintenance luxuries.

Even just keeping the money and investing it you can do something right just by vetting and prioritizing funds with a proven good profile.



> There is a massive difference between spending my money taking my kids to the local open farm with shows, animals to pet etc or if I spend the same money hosting a party with lots of junk decorations that gets thrown away afterwards.

This strikes me as a very "first world problems" view of things.

What I meant is that there is a massive difference in consumption levels (both in term of energy and resources) between you and I living our comfy Western lives and the life of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of human beings on the poorest end of the scale.

Just a drive to the supermarket for our weekly shop probably consumes more energy and resources than months of consumption for some people on this planet.

Those people have the right to be lifted out of poverty and to enjoy a high standard of living, like we have the right to enjoy those standards but this is not realistic with 8 billion people. It's simply wrong IMHO to condemn humanity to restrictions and sacrifices, so if we want everyone to be 'rich' and save the planet at the same time the only solution is to aim at cutting population significantly.

This starts by a paradigm shift, we must accept that population cannot keep growing and should in fact decrease. Then adapt to that as it has fundamental impacts on the economy and social fabric.


Yep. I live in the first world and have forst world problems as - I assume - does the person you originally replied to and - I guess - you too.

Point is you cannot condemn the person you replied without knowing them.

I can make a huge difference with small changes without making neither nyself nor my kids into laughing stock.

If my lifestyle results in 50%, 25% or even just 10% lower CO2 releases that is huge compared to what is possible for others.

Thinking about the fact that maybe I still release much more CO2 than the average Nigerian isn't productive and doesn't do anything good.

I'll keep doing the things I can:

- keep my hobbies smart (I repair stuff, create software and grow fruit and vegetables at home and together with friends on a patch on a nearby farm)

- cook food from scratch

- teach my kids not to waste

- teach my kids the joy of simple things like hiking and tenting

- when time permits: shooting at the local shooting range

- when it existed: volunteer at the local refugee center

- and other inexpensive, interesting activities that aren't crazy wasteful.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: