While it’s everyone’s fault, there is very little consumers can do to actually help.
For example:
- When every company is using single use plastics for certain products, you don’t have any alternatives.
- When the local government doesn’t offer the ability to recycle, your options are limited.
- Or worse, the local government offers recycling services, but the collected items are literally just dumped into the trash.
So while I again agree everyone is at fault, I’d say the consumer has vastly less overall control than any other entity.
market won’t regulate itself. that’s established. EDIT: no way to “vote” with my wallet
Or apartments aren’t mandated to have recycling. Or how oil corporations controlled anti-climate change propaganda, as well as Republicans. Or how corporations forced us to use oil to get to our jobs because there really was no public transportation alternative (particularly in America).
That makes this meme stupid, because consumers didn’t have much control over big money buying everything or basically requiring the use of specific materials.
So while I again agree everyone is at fault
no, only those in power and making profits are to blame, not the people trapped in their wealth extraction system with no choice but to participate or die.
All consumers need to do is commit mass suicide /s
I mean, I think it would be cool if I could go into a store and buy a flash drive that wasn’t surrounded by a mountain of plastic and other resources. Or replace that with just about everything else. Although we’re at another wealth inequality problem in general (I can go vegan tomorrow, move to a commune where everything was made of hemp, and it will still probably take 100 of my lifetimes to offset the carbon footprint of Elon or Taylor Swift over the next week, or maybe even just hour) I do often think about the very nature of our system now is that goods sold are often going to come with at a bare minimum equal parts waste to product.
Consumers have the very real ability to vote and protest for changes but the people don’t care and the politicians know it would be unpopular so they wouldn’t do it.
Plastic and recycling have nothing to do with climate change though
Those were examples, but as pointed out they absolutely do have an effect on climate change.
However, I can provide a couple more direct examples if you like:
- No public transit available, and neighborhoods built in such a way that the majority of residents need to travel miles to reach their place of business.
- Products being grown, packaged and sold in completely different countries. Driven by profit, meaning many companies make the same ridiculous decisions. Consumers are often given no alternatives for certain products.
https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/which-is-better-for-the-environment-glass-or-plastic/
They do though. Manufacturing in general has a high carbon footprint, and the overwhelming majority of plastics the containers won’t be recycled so the next packaged item will have the exact same carbon footprint as the first one.
Voters are the problem. People don’t vote for responsible and educated representatives.
responsible and educated representatives.
when they’re all serving capitalism, that won’t change shit
I’m confused. Do you think a responsible and educated representative would serve capitalism?
I don’t think the current capitalist class would allow for such a representative, without large changes to their power.
Weird how this equates the blame equally across all parties when it’s pretty clear who needs to force who to not pollute
But the politicians that wants to do it don’t get votes… People are weak and it makes democracy look the fool.
People keep bringing up people not voting while ignoring how gerrymandered our fuckin voting maps are
Ask yourself “where is the greatest leverage to solve this problem?”. If you think the fastest way to turn the climate ship around is to convince 7ish billion individuals to go vegan, and ride bikes… Good luck!
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Hmm. I’m not really banking on anything. I’m just surviving. Hoping for the best but expecting something less optimal. I’m not a doomer because believe too much in love. Not that it will save us, but that it’s the only thing that truly makes life worth living. Whatever it is, we’re all in it together.
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I think if you love yourself and others, then it is obvious what is good and what isn’t.
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I mean, sure. But you can’t just convince a critical mass of people to understand love. If we’re gonna turn the ship, we’ll need to find something else to leverage. Regulations seem like the most obvious point to me.
Regulations backed by whom?
Says a guy doing nothing? (based on below comments)
Huh? You don’t know anything about what I’m doing or not.
“I’m not really banking on anything. I’m just surviving.” Sorry if I misunderstood but that sounds like you’re not helping?
I’m not banking on anything, as in “I don’t have strong faith in any proposed solutions”. I’m just surviving in the sense that, like so many of us, I’m doing my best to maintain my physical and mental health during these difficult times. For me, like so many of us, “doing something” me to maintain my physical and mental health.
I don’t blame you for misunderstanding me. I can see how my previous comment could have come off that way. I do also want to say though, that “not helping” is okay too. If you don’t have the capacity right now to do anything but exist, I understand. It’s fuckin tough out there for a lot of people.
Taking care of yourself is so important, lots of respect for that. And you are totally right, it’s okay (vital in fact!) to take breaks, to get away from it all. I apologise, I’ve seen too many online comments saying something derogatory towards those trying to do what they can while clearly sitting on the sidelines. Really appreciate your thoughtful response!
We all ought to focus on that whole 7 billion thing…or wait, isn’t it 8 now? Will be 9 soon.
Infinite population growth in a world of finite resources is not, and never will be, possible. Less people = more resources per person and higher quality of life.
Ok let’s here your solution then. Let me guess eco-fascism?
You will be missed, and your sacrifice will not be forgotten!
any policy of population control is necessarily eugenecist. you can personally favor it, but kindly keep it away from politics.
It’s not eugenics, by definition, if it doesn’t favor any specific traits. I never suggested anything like that at all.
And sorry, discussion of population controls need to enter politics as that is literally the only meaningful way to fight climate change.
But yeah, I’m not hopeful lol so you don’t have much to worry about. We will probably just continue to not take any meaningful action and continue to destroy our climate and world.
It’s not eugenics, by definition, if it doesn’t favor any specific traits.
what policy can you introduce that doesn’t favor a specific trait?
A randomized lottery system.
who gets enrolled?
Literally everyone in the age range to be a potential parent. Perhaps drawn once a year. The winners can have children this year, while the others cannot. If both people in a couple win they can have two or something. Non-heteronormative couples and artificial insemination is fine. If someone wins and chooses not to have children that year or is unable for whatever that’s completely fine.
This is just another way of saying it’s on us poor people, which it really isn’t.
Wrong. The meme is saying poor people responsible too.
How? All we do is work just to afford an existence. I’m not jetting around the globe, living in a 20 room mansion, buying every product in existence, etc. All I can afford to do is eat, have a roof and food.
So you believe that if all 8 billion people lived like you, and there were no rich people, climate change would no longer be an issue?
What if there were 10 billion. Or 20?
Why are you so insistent on blaming the poor while defending and sucking the dick of billionaires and corporations? Class traitor
Should I take the complete lack of response as a no then?
And fyi I’m about as far left as it gets and never once voiced any support for the rich. Ever. No idea where you got that idea.
It was my fault for not turning off the water when I brush my teeth. Sorry guys.
Maui would have been just fine if I didn’t put my sandwich in baggie for lunch. So sorry everyone!
If only we had a society where I could actually buy from companies that were green or vote for politicians that gave a fuck about anything but money. We’re fucked. I’m just glad I’ll be dead before the world melts.
the sun: it was me lol
Image Transcription:
Above a set of three images is the title “CLIMATE CHANGE?” A photo of Broderick Stephen “Steve” Harvey Sr. with his hands raised, palms out and text above and below. The text above reads “Consumers:” and the text below reads ‘"Not my fault’". The second photo is a Capuchin monkey with its paws raised as if shrugging, and text above and below. The text above reads “Companies:” and the text below reads ‘“Not my fault”’. The last image is that of an otter half underwater with its fore-paws in the air as if at gunpoint, and text above and below. The text above reads “Politicians:” and the text below reads ‘“Not my fault”’
[I am a human, if I’ve made a mistake please let me know. Please consider providing alt-text for ease of use. Thank you. 💜]
Lol everyone dies.
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that’s how you create a messy debate, it needs to be provocative…
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"Would you be upset if I told you we were dying? And every cure they gave us was a lie? Oh! They mean it when they say we’re dead and doomed, and every single symptom brings us closer to the tomb, and who will take the credit for our swift impending fall? Because it’s not my fault!
Would you be impressed if I said that the dead would help us counting every single moment that we waste our time? All the time we’re spending vaccinating this disease, I just get dizzy when I think of all the ways we try to hide our maladies. We wine, we dine, and everything is fine, because it’s not my fault"
“Would You Be Impressed?” by Streetlight Manifesto
¯_(ツ)_/¯ Not my fault.
There is some truth to it if you consider consumers = voters.
Consumers vote with their money also.
It’s more like “it’s my fault, but I don’t really want to deal with that rn”