Individual sacrifice is a solution. If everybody ate a bullet today, we would drastically reduce greenhouse gas production. Problem solved?
Of course, declaring it as a solution is the easy bit. The hard bit is actually doing it, and this is where I see personal sacrifice falling short. I assume mass ritual suicide isn't what you had in mind, so what level of personal sacrifice is appropriate? How do you convince people? Are there rewards for adherence of penalties for not? If the government provides incentives, is it still "personal" sacrifice? I heard China and India are the biggest contributors these days, shouldn't they be the ones sacrificing instead of me? How many vegans does it take to offset one new AI datacenter?
It's like asking "why don't we just emit less?" Right, that's the problem. What are you proposing?
Ok, point taken. Saying that individual sacrifice is a solution is not saying much. But can we agree that it is saying something? And that that something is better than handwaving at big corporations?
As for concrete proposals, I don‘t have any. I don’t think that there need to be universal prescriptions. if everybody takes a good look what he or she really needs for a fulfilled life and what in the end are luxuries. I honestly think that that is enough. But I think the responsibility to decide there is real even if it is in no way enforced. And it should not be easily dismissed.
I think they're both pretty handwavy. In my opinion, both diagnose the problem correctly (we consume too much), but both lack actionable advice beyond that.
I don't think I've experienced many quick dismissals. Here's some of the conversations around personal responsibility I've personally experienced:
- reduce reuse recycle (this was drilled into my head at a young age)
- plastic vs paper vs reusable supermarket bags (pretty trivial)
- plastic vs paper straws (infuriatingly banal)
- EVs vs ICE vehicles (currently the only viable options are luxury cars, cutting a whole segment of the population out of the market)
- reduce meat consumption (as unpopular as it is effective)
- do not have children (extreme, extremely polarizing)
- reduce air travel (easy in theory, I just really like travel)
While it is heartening to hear that you have not heard many quick dismissals of personal responsibility (it really is), I certainly have quite often (and among them is the GP above, whose comment prompted me to ask for an explanation).
I concede that both attributions (personal or corporate) might be handwavy. Let's continue to wave our hands in both directions not only in one, is all I want to say.
Of course, declaring it as a solution is the easy bit. The hard bit is actually doing it, and this is where I see personal sacrifice falling short. I assume mass ritual suicide isn't what you had in mind, so what level of personal sacrifice is appropriate? How do you convince people? Are there rewards for adherence of penalties for not? If the government provides incentives, is it still "personal" sacrifice? I heard China and India are the biggest contributors these days, shouldn't they be the ones sacrificing instead of me? How many vegans does it take to offset one new AI datacenter?
It's like asking "why don't we just emit less?" Right, that's the problem. What are you proposing?