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Of course by keeping your lights on you’re contributing to these companies emissions because they’re fossil fuel and power companies lol
Edit: To clarify, I’m not trying to absolve fossil fuel companies, or their lobbying departments, of any of the blame here. The simple fact is that we don’t get much choice in our energy sources. However, the whole “x companies produce 80% of the CO2 in the world” narrative draws a dangerous parallel to the personal responsibility/carbon footprint narrative. One tells you that individuals are at fault (so get angry at your neighbours for not recycling, rather than getting angry at the government for not doing anything about it) whereas the other tells you to stop trying to even do anything about it personally, because it’s all huge megacorporations at fault and there’s nothing we can do to affect them. The simple truth is, if everyone in the west stopped buying cheap plastic shit from China, MANY of these companies would take a nose dive in their revenues and pollution. China Coal is usually listed as THE top polluter. Well look at China’s energy statistics. 58% of it is industry. In comparison for the US on the website, it’s 21% industrial usage. Why is China’s (total) annual CO2 output going up at the same time as their % of electricity coming from renewables is going up? Maybe because they’re the factory of the world. They make everything we consume and renewables just can’t keep up with the demand we all put out there. So buy less, buy more local, educate your friends and family, and don’t forget that political action is still THE key. Ironically, if the Trump tariffs on China really go through, this MIGHT have some effect on Chinese pollution - at the unfortunate cost of increasing American pollution.
I somewhat dislike using stats like this. Like sure climate change isn’t a problem solvable by individual actions such as those but those companies aren’t just evil nonsense either. You look them up and a lot of them are mega companies that produce much of the things people use daily so climate change isn’t solvable without restructuring our world order and relationship to consumption and nature. Just people sometimes seem to use this stat as a talking point on how daily life and current world order doesn’t need to be changed drastically just get rid of these handful of mega polluters and emitters when its not that simple.
They would not sell (nor profit) something that people refuse to buy.
We are the ones doing this.
They would not sell (nor profit) something that people refuse to buy.
So they are wasting money on hiring advertising and marketing companies?
Then there’s also planned obsolescence and licensing deals that make it impossible to continue using and repairing things (even mechanical things like tractors, and living organisms like crop seeds).
Sure, people can try their best, but there is only so far we can go before it gets so inconvenient to not fall into the consumerism trap.
Their marketing strategy isn’t just blaming the consumer, it is to sell that their product is “sustainable and green”, and people instead of not buying, they buy their “sustainable and green” product that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. So no, they are not wasting money on marketing, they just changed the strategy.
Coming back to people, have you tried convince someone to change their preferred message app even knowing that belongs to an evil company and making the change being a literal 5 minute task?
In my experience people aren’t even trying. Just blaming the same way companies and politicians do. If we really tried our best many things would have changed already. I believe that everything we have now is just a mirror of our collective greed, and we are doomed if we expect the other (companies and politicians) to change anything.
Everyone wants change, no one wants to change. It’s a tale as old as time.
They are polluting on our behalf. Saying it’s entirely their fault is like blaming China for plastic pollution. They are producing that plastic for the world.
on our behalf
Show me where they give us OUR part of the profits, if not I’m going with greed.
If you don’t personally benefit from pollution, then junk your ICE, never eat meat again, and stop buying plastic crap.
(You should do all those things anyway, but I’m making a point here)
“and yet you participate in society, hm, curious”. You’re doing the meme, my man. You’re doing the entire meme that is also making a point.
You should move to a mixed use walkable neighbourhood.
You should learn more vegan recipes.
You should buy durable goods and learn how to maintain them.
Doing these things will make your life better in many ways. And you’re going to have to do them anyway after the revolution comes and bans oil and habitat destruction.
And I don’t want to hear the poverty argument. Rice, beans, pasta, bread, and potatoes are the cheapest foods. Not meat. Get your protein from legumes and your B12 from tablets, it’s cheaper. I bought a sewing kit for 3 dollars and hair scissors for 7. Now I buy less clothes and no haircuts.
The lifestyle of fast cars, red meat, and cheap junk is convenient and fun, it’s not responsible. Choose responsibility. Don’t pay oil barons thousands of dollars for garbage you don’t need.
How about other meat like chickens? I raise my own and kill them when they get old. I feel pretty vindicated in that my little system is pretty sustainable. I do sometimes supplement it with store chicken, but try to go for locally sourced meat when I do.
You buy chicken feed?
That chicken feed grown on farmland that used to be woodland and is now sprayed with pesticides to increase yield?
Is it shipped to the store on diesel trucks?
I don’t want to judge you, this isn’t about any one person. It’s about how all of us are part of the system. We all benefit and we all suffer from it. No ethical consumption under capitalism.
I joined this conversation replying to someone who said they don’t benefit from the capitalist pollution system. They do, I do, you do. None of us is independent.
Sooner or later we’re going to have to give up these capitalist luxuries. Only then can we experience the riches of socialism. They won’t be the same riches. We’re going to need to change.
We were buying feed, but we are working on a formula for a mash-feed based off grain and grass we grow. I know it is just an example of the larger problem you mentioned we are all living through, but all of us can refuse to partake by buying second hand and growing what we can ourselves. Small animals are a very effective source of protein and don’t have nearly the same carbon footprint that beef or pork has. Just here to offer a different perspective on the issue we both see/acknowledge.
My other comment is beside the point. The person I’m replying to is literally arguing that they don’t participate in society.
no, they are saying the corporations aren’t polluting on our behalf
And when I pointed out how they benefit from pollution, the next one said benefiting from pollution was participating in society.
I didnt
they didn’t ask me