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[–] 16 points 2 months ago (23 children)

How to win over the masses, though? Most people know about climate change, they'll say it's terrible and something should be done, but aren't ready to make any personal sacrifices to do something about it. How do we get them to give up eating meat or taking planes

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  • [–] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    By changing our economic system so that external costs are internalized.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah. I hate that people think this can be fixed with a few idividual changes. We will need to change our entire way of thinking or nature will make us change.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    I didn't mean a few individual changes. A few vegetarians traveling by bicycle aren't going to make a difference. But you can't only change economic incentives without changing consumption patterns. We will also need to move to plant based diets, reduce tourism, save water, etcetera.

    That's where I see most resistance now. It's not people who don't believe in climate change, but people who acknowledge the problem until they have to sacrifice some luxury they enjoy. Then it's always somebody else who has to change first

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Not sure travel is as much as a bogeyman as people wants to make it, but we need more efficient travel (hello trains). Most people travel far once or twice a year, it's not the bread and butter of consumption and has a legitimate positive on peoples mental

    While changing to vegetarian diets has no mental related negatives, vegan diets would need a bit of large scale community wide education first - As most people don't know you can get more protein from nuts than just about any other nutrient on this planet, but damn do they know you can eat cheeses and eggs for the same.

    Honestly the solution for changing peoples diets is however quite easy, let people pay their full costs. Abolish agricultural financial support for non essentials (all animal products) and let's see if people wants meat or the yearly travel

    Water is an industrial problem, but focusing on animal related products and fast fashion would get us far

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago

    The moment you mention anything that could help you get people suddenly pretending that they give a shit about the poor.

    Here is a random idea though. x10 energy fees with the first 6000kWh of electricity free (or very cheap) per year. No reductions for gas and oil. The poor were already not using much energy, if you actually care about them, this will actually reduce their energy bills.

    Its hardly a new model either, phone data works the same kind of way, just monthly rather than annually.

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  • [–] -2 points 2 months ago (14 children)

    What personal sacrifices are you making?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (13 children)

    I stopped eating meat or flying planes completely. I have accepted that not flying limits my career opportunities. In my home, I electrified heating and cooking. I am saving for an EV but my current car is still doing fine. I hardly use my car, do my daily commute by bike. I go to protests against aviation, against fossil fuels and for the climate. I donate to climate causes. I teach my kids to consider the environment and climate in almost everything we do. I probably forget a lot of other small things, I am extremely climate conscious.

    But this is just me. It's like voting. No individual is going to make any difference here. If loads of people do the same, maybe. The real resistance is about taxes, consumption, meat eating, flying. People must be forced to do more or it will only be more expensive later

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  • [+] -7 points 2 months ago (12 children)

    Do you have a smartphone? Do you use social media, cloud services, streaming services, A.I. services?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago* (6 children)

    What the fuck

    I am willing to give all of that up, but you're literally that "yet you participate in society" meme. This isn't about me

    What are you getting at?

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  • [+] -6 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    I'm just saying, I know a hypocrite when I see one.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago (4 children)

    You're on lemmy right now, do you need a mirror or is your head already so far up your own ass you can see the hypocrite from the inside?

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    I never proclaimed to be holier than thou.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    What an ass argument.

    "Helping a starving orphan is pointles, because you are not helping every starving orphan"

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  • [–] -1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    You, as many others, are missing the point. It's so easy to point fingers at everyone else and think that you are saving the environment by cutting down on meat and fossil fuels, while forgetting the invisible sinners. Most people don't give their digital life a second thought because the environmental impact isn't always obvious.

    And all of you biting my head of for stating this is just hilarious.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    You're just wrong. First of all, I am making a lot of personal sacrifices. You can't lob the hypocrite accusation at me, it's laughable.

    But more importantly, this isn't about individual choices but overcoming resistance to collective action. We should all move to a plant based diet, we should all stop flying for vacation, we should all pay way more taxes to reduce climate damage, but people aren't ready to accept that yet. They'll say climate change is bad and should be stopped, but the minute a politician proposes anything meaningful, they'll be out of a job.

    And when you point out it's going to be costly and people aren't ready for that yet, some douchebag on the internet calls you a hypocrite

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